Smallest of the Demon Children
by Esellyn
Summary: A four-year-old Naruto falls asleep, and wakes up in a sewer, in front of what he thinks is a giant bunny rabbit. He was not correct. Who knew giant foxes had parental instincts? Parental!Kurama Eventual Prodigy!Naruto
1. Chapter 1

"**When Naruto isn't in the seal and Kurama is talking" **"_When Naruto is talking back"_

Kurama was a lot of things. Powerful, intelligent, a giant nine-tailed fox, but in no way was he a fuzzball. Or a giant bunny rabbit, as this tiny kid, maybe four years old, called him.

"What did you call me?" Kurama rumbled, amusement written across his furry face.

"A giant bunny rabbit!" The small child announced, looking proud of himself. "That's what the mean lady at the orphanage called animals like you! Bunny rabbits!"

Kurama snorted, sending a blast of warm air at the boy. "I am no bunny rabbit child. Bunny rabbits are white or brown. I am ginger-colored, thank you very much."

The little boy looked amazed. "You must be really smart!"

"Much smarter than you," Kurama agreed. "See all my tails? They mean I am very smart and powerful."

"Oooo," the little boy said. "That's a lotta tails. So, what's your name? Mine's Naruto!"

Kurama exhaled softly. "No one has asked my name in a very long time, Kit. My name is Kurama."

"Why are you in this sewer?"

"This is your mindscape. I must say, this cage is much more comfortable than being chained to a moon."

"But the moon is so far away? How'd you get here?"

"It was not the actual moon, it was your mother's mindscape."

"I had a mother?" The kit asked, eyes wide.

"Of course you did. If you did not have a mother, you would not exist."

"Do you have a mother?"

Kurama shook his head, amused. "No, I did not have a mother. I had a father. Although, I suppose the Juubi could be considered my mother."

"Can you have one or the other? Did I have a father?"

"Yes, Kit, you had a father and a mother."

"Woah. Where'd they go? Do they not love me?"

"They were forced to leave you," Kurama decided after a moment of thinking. He didn't really want to have to explain death to a four-year-old. "They died protecting you." He'd tell the kid about the incident later. In a few years perhaps.

"Oh," Naruto sat down. "But they did love me?"

"Yes. Very much."

"Okay. I forgive them for not being here."

Kurama smiled slightly at the kit. So small, and yet so kind. This could have been bad, but it seemed that the kid may actually be a good jinchuuriki.

"So, Kurama-san, what's a mindscope?"

"Mindscape," Kurama corrected. "It is a mental representation of your mind."

Naruto looked so confused, so Kurama took some pity on him. "It is a place in your head. It is all made up by your mind."

"So, why are you trapped here?" Naruto asked, brows furrowing.

"Lift up your shirt," Kurama commanded. Naruto did so, then looked back at him. Kurama was worried. The kid was way to thin. Way, way to thin for someone his age. As far as Kurama knew of humans, anyway. "Channel some chakra to your stomach."

"What's chakra?" Naruto asked, tilting his head, dropping his shirt and sitting down, clearly prepared for a lecture.

Kurama sighed but settled down, placing his head on his paws. He'd have to deal with that issue later. "Chakra is the energy that keeps us running. Ninjas like your parents use it to do jutsu."

"Oh, so, like, the switching thing that some people do when caught in a trap?" Naruto asked excitedly.

"Yes, like that," Kurama said. "That is the replacement jutsu."

"How do you channel it?"

"It is like diverting a river. Let the energy pool in your stomach."

Naruto nodded, pulling his shirt up to his ribs again, and concentrating. Slowly, the seal faded into view. Naruto looked down and gasped at the black lines of ink spreading across his stomach. It faded away, but the kit seemed shellshocked. "That keeps you in here?"

Kurama nodded. "Yes it does. Your father made sure of it."

"Does Jiji know about you?" Naruto asked, tilting his head to the side. Kurama resisted the urge to coo at the adorable sight.

"I would imagine he does."

"Why didn't he tell me?"

Kurama sighed, a gust of hot air nearly blowing the kit over. "I do not know, kit."

"Why do you call me kit?"

"It is a term of endearment. Also, a kit is a baby fox."

"What's a fox?"

Kurama internally sighed. So many questions. He supposed the kit hadn't had someone who'd answer his questions before. "I am a fox, kit."

"Oh! That's cool." Naruto said, grinning. "Hey, Kurama-san? If you're so smart, do you know why the villagers hate me?"

Kurama sighed once more. "Yes kit, I know why they hate you. It is because of me."

Naruto looked confused. "But you're so nice!"

"They do not realize that. Nor did they bother asking me. You are one of the first humans to ask my name."

"That's so sad!" Naruto decided. "Do you know who my parents were?"

"You don't?" Kurama asked, taken aback.

"Jiji just says that he doesn't know, but I think he's lying."

Kurama sighed. "Your parents were Minato Namikaze-"

"The fourth Hokage?" Naruto interrupted.

"Yes, and your mother was Kushina Uzumaki, who was my last jinchuuriki."

"Woah! Why don't I have my dad's last name?"

"It would be dangerous for you. Until you can properly defend yourself, you can not be known as Minato's relative. Iwa and Kumo hated Minato, and would jump at the chance to kill his son."

"But why didn't he tell me?" Naruto looked close to tears.

"I do not know," Kurama admitted. "Maybe avoid asking him though, we do not know how he will react. He could strengthen the seal once more, cutting me off from talking to you. And I rather like talking to you. Much better than sitting around here bored out of my mind."

"Hey, Kurama-san," Naruto began. "Can you teach me to be strong?"

Kurama was taken aback. Well, he was a four-year-old. He must just be searching for someone to help him. "Sure, I will help best I can." Even giant nine-tailed foxes were not immune to the urge to 'parent' small children. Being the oldest and most powerful, he'd always had much stronger parental instincts, especially when it came to his jinchuuriki.

Naruto grinned, wide and toothy. "Thanks, Kurama-sensei!"

Kurama blinked. Well, that was a development. "You need to wake up now," he said gently. "You can't stay in here forever."

Naruto sighed, slumping slightly. "Okay. How do I get out?"

"I'll send you back," Kurama said, pulsing his chakra to force the small boy's conscience back to the real world.

Naruto opened his eyes to see the blank ceiling of his room at the orphanage.

"**Have you begun at the academy, kit?" **

Naruto jumped at the sudden voice in his head. He fell off his a bit too small bed, and landed on the floor with a hard thump.

"What was that?" He asked, looking around.

"**You just met me a few minutes ago." **

"Kurama-sensei?"

"**Yes. You can respond inside your head, it will keep you from looking like a lunatic." **

"_Like this?"_

"**Yes. Are you doing anything today?" **

"_The matron probably has me doing chores,"_ Naruto replied sadly. "_No one else does them, so I have no one to talk to."_

"**You do realize I literally cannot go anywhere, right?"**

"_Oh yeah,"_ Naruto thought. His stomach grumbled. "_I should probably check for what she wants me to do, I want dinner this time." _

"**Wait a moment. Come inside the seal, I'm going to show you how to make a Bushin. You'll get stuff done faster." **Internally, Kurama also thought it would be funny to scare the matron by having a shadow clone able to henge into a fox and contain some of his consciousness.

Naruto appeared in front of the massive fox. "A bushin?"

Kurama nodded. "A Kage Bushin. It's solid, and you get it's memories back."

"Does that mean there's a normal bushin?" Naruto wondered.

"Yes, it is merely an illusion, and has no mass."

Naruto opened his mouth to as another question, and Kurama decided to cut the boy off before they got even further off topic.

"I use this hand sign for it, but there are a couple others you can use," Kurama told the boy, demonstrating the two half rams, one turned sideways to form a cross. "You can also use this one," he did the tiger hand sign, hands clasped together with the pointer and thumb fingers pointing to the sky. He channeled chakra through the seal, just a tiny amount, and a tiny fox, about the size of a normal fox appeared. It grinned crookedly at Naruto, and Naruto cooed at the fox.

"Aww, it's so cute!"

"I'm still Kurama," the tiny fox informed him. "Just, smaller. Less power."

Naruto nodded wisely. "Okay."

"Now, get out there and try it yourself. If you do well, maybe tomorrow we can leave the clones to do the work, and we'll go find somewhere to practice. Your mother used this one training field with her Uchiha friend. Mikoto, I think her name was. Not many know about it, so it should be free."

Naruto nodded. "Um, Kurama-sensei? Can you send me out again?"

Kurama shook his head, but pulsed his chakra to send the boy back outside.


	2. Chapter 2

**(A/N) Alright, I'll only do this now, then randomly and sporadically through the rest of the story. Try and remember if you can. "When Naruto isn't in the seal and Kurama is talking" "When Naruto is talking back" With the addition of "When Kyu is talking in the seal." As for Mr. Guest that was nice enough to leave a review, *cackles* oh, he'll be meeting people alright. It's my hope the timeline will be so severely screwed up that no one would be able to recognize it as Naruto except for the fact that I'm using the characters. *cackles***

Naruto tried the cross seal, his fingers responding clumsily. He pushed chakra into it, using what Kurama-sensei had said last night. Four identical clones stared back at him.

**"Admittedly, you might have a bit more trouble with hiding the fact that there are four of you running around. Perhaps dispel two or three of them."**

_"Deespll?"_ Naruto asked, confused.

**"Dispel,"** Kurama corrected. **"And, it means to get rid of. Try giving two of them a nice punch to the head."**

_"How do you punch?"_

**"Hit with a closed fist. Just hit the clone."**

Naruto shrugged, then hit the clone nearest to him. It exploded into smoke and he blinked as the memories returned to him. _"That's weird!"_

**"Yes, yes it is,"**

Naruto hit one of the other clones, and it too burst into smoke._ "So, uh, what do I do now?"_

**"Go do your chores, theoretically, they each have your mind, and should be able to go do chores with you, speeding it up."**

Naruto nodded. To his clones, "Let's do the chores!"

They both gave apathetic yay's.

The non-shadow clone Naruto left first, heading off to start cleaning the front, while one of the clones left a few minutes later, headed in the opposite direction to reorganize the library, and the third headed out a few minutes after the second to clean the back half of the orphanage.

All three were done by lunch time, at which point they gathered back in Naruto's room, and Naruto dispelled them. By hitting both on the head with a book the first clone had gotten from the library.

**"Can you even read, Kit?"**

_"Um."_

Kurama sighed heavily, the noise echoing through Naruto's head. **"I'll teach you tonight."**

_"Cool!"_

**"First, I want to try something. Alright, so you have two chakras in you, yours, and mine. You can draw on, and use my chakra. I want you to try making a shadow clone with my chakra. I'll control my own chakra best I can, but who knows what might happen."**

_"Alright!"_

Kurama gently fed a little bit of his chakra to the kid, just enough to make one shadow clone. Unfortunately, a little extra slipped out before he could stop it. Naruto took the chakra, and produced two clones, the first one entirely Kurama's chakra, making it a normal sized fox. The second was Kurama's chakra, plus Naruto's, producing a red head kid with fox ears and a tail. He was wearing a red version of Naruto's outfit, and had red eyes with the pupils slitted like a fox's.

The red headed clone stared at Naruto. "I don't even want to know how you managed this," He said, frowning.

"Wait, Kurama-sensei?"

The red-head tilted his head. "Sort of."

**"Not me, but certainly not you, interesting."**

"I can hear you, Kurama," the red-head said calmly.

"You need a name," Naruto decided. "How about, um, I dunno any good names."

**"Kyu should work for now."**

Kyu tilted his head. "That will work."

The Matron walked in, spotted the fox, and started screaming. Kyu looked between her and the fox for a bit, while Naruto just stared at the matron. She had never screamed before. "Get out of my Orphanage, Demon!" She shouted after she had finished screaming. "Get away from the nice boy!"

Kyu looked her in the eyes, and she registered the red eyes. She looked faint. "Never mind, both of you Demons, get out. Don't come back. Take that creature with you," she practically growled at the fox, and it lept up to curl around Naruto's neck like a scarf. It yipped as the Matron left.

Naruto was about to burst into tears. He was four darn it, not at all ready to fend for himself.

"We should collect what things you can carry with you," Kyu informed him, searching around for the backpack Jiji-sama had gotten Naruto yesterday. "Where did you put that backpack? I know you have one."

Naruto shrugged, looking around. "I forgot." He quickly blinked away tears, and helped Kyu search for the backpack.

Kurama was the one who found it, as it still had the shop's scent on it. He didn't know the shop, but it was the only thing in the apartment with any strong scent other then the Hokage's, and Naruto's. It was a black backpack, clearly a shinobi designed one, with lots of pockets and such. It had orange stripes, and already had a couple paint streaks.

"Don't worry, Kit," the smaller fox told Naruto. His voice was a bit squeakier than the normal sized Kurama, so it was at least a bit amusing. "We'll figure something out."

"After all, you have Kurama and me. Kurama may not be able to assume human form, but I share his knowledge," Kyu told Naruto.

"We should see the Hokage. I can't believe I'm actually saying it, but we need to go see him. All three of us," Kurama said, seizing a pair of pants in his teeth and dragging them over. "That's the last of it, come on kit."

Naruto nodded, shouldering the pack, then looking around the room once more. He wouldn't be coming back here. Ever.

Kyu took ahold of Naruto's shoulder with one hand, and picked up the tiny Kurama with the other, tucking him under his arm. Kyu steered Naruto out of the orphanage, a couple of people giving the three odd looks.

Mini Kurama eventually managed to get a perch on the practically comatose Naruto's head, sitting there and glaring with red slitted eyes at those who glared at Naruto. They, of course, freaked out, despite the fact that mini Kurama only had one tail, due to having much less chakra then the actual fox, which was sitting in Naruto's seal.

Naruto 'woke up' halfway to Hokage tower, and Kurama and Kyu decided they could dispel themselves now, as there really weren't many civilians around.

_"What am I supposed to tell Hokage-jiji?"_ Naruto asked, beginning to have an internal freak out.

_**"That the orphanage threw you out."**_

_"But, but, what if he hurts them?"_

**"From what I could see, they bullied you, and honestly, I'm pretty sure that I'm the only reason you're still alive. You're barely keeping from starving to death."**

Naruto fell silent at that, but the two could tell his thoughts were swirling. He barely spoke as he walked into Hokage tower, and up to the Hokage's office.

"Naruto, what brings you in here?" The Hokage asked, looking slightly worriedly at the backpack.

"Why didn't you tell me about Mr. Kurama?" Naruto asked, eyes brimming with tears.

"Mr. Kurama?" The Hokage asked, surprised.

"The giant orange bunny rabbit," Naruto explained.

**"Naruto, kit, I'm a fox, not a bunny rabbit."**

"Oh, sorry Kurama-sensei. He says he's a fox, not a bunny rabbit," Naruto informed the Hokage, oblivious to his shocked and horrified face.

Kurama and Kyu's giggles echoed in his head, making him curious. It would have to wait though.

"Oh, that's the Kyuubi, Naruto. He killed your parents," the Hokage said gently.

Naruto blinked._ "Kurama-sensei? Is he right?"_

**"Unfortunately, Kit. I was being controlled and forced to go on a rampage. Your mother died because I had been forcefully extracted from her by an evil guy, and your father died sealing me into you."**

"But what can control you?" Naruto asked, oblivious to the fact he'd just spoken out loud on accident. "You're so big and smart and powerful!"

**"A rouge Uchiha. Not all Uchiha are bad, just the evil ones. Which, luckily, as far as I know, has only been two. The one that controlled me, and Madara Uchiha, who also controlled me."**

"Who's Madara Uchiha. And what's an Uchiha?" Naruto asked.

**"Your mother's friend Mikoto was an Uchiha. They are a big family in Konoha."**

Naruto nodded. He understood now. "Are Uchiha nice? Would they be my friend like how Mikoto-san was my mom's friend?"

Hiruzen nearly had an aneurysm at that one, how did the kid know of his parents?

**"Maybe, they can be a bit stuck up though. But if you do find a nice one, they'll be your friend for life. For the most part."**

"Okay! I'll find a nice Uchiha to be my friend!" Naruto announced, standing on his chair triumphantly.

"Naruto," The Hokage said calmly. "The Kyuubi is evil, he's just trying to corrupt you and escape."

Naruto, of course, asked Kurama first. **"If I escaped, it would kill you. I would much rather be caged in here, then lose the first person to know my name."**


	3. Chapter 3

**(A/N) Terribly sorry about the data thing last chapter, I'll try and ensure it doesn't happen again. Thank you to all who brought my notice to it. I just have to make sure I check each chapter. **

Naruto was mildly confused. On one hand, Kurama-sensei was nice and offered to help him train. On the other hand, Hokage-Jiji was telling him that Kurama-sensei was evil and wanted to kill him. He wasn't sure who to believe. Kurama-sensei had told him who his parents were, when Hokage-Jiji didn't say anything. Besides, Kurama hadn't tried to kill him in the seal, or when he made a tiny Kurama fox shadow clone. Kurama-sensei it was.

"Why didn't you tell me about my parents?" Naruto asked, adopting his most heartbroken expression. "Kurama-sensei had to tell me who they were."

Hokage-Jiji didn't look too good, almost like he might fall over at any second.

"**Kit, let me out as a shadow clone, I need to have some words with the Hokage. I promise not to attack him, no matter what he does." **

"Hokage-Jiji, Kurama-sensei says he wants to talk to you and promises to not attack you no matter what." With no response, Naruto made the hand sign for shadow clones and borrowed Kurama-sensei's chakra to make a shadow clone. Of course, Kyu ended up coming out as well. This time though, he had violet eyes.

Hiruzen nearly had a heart attack when the kid made what appeared to be two shadow clones, one of them a normal-sized fox, the other a human that looked like a male version of Kushina.

"Okay, Hokage-Jiji, I'm gonna go in the hall with Kyu. You can have a talk with Kurama-sensei!"

The fox hopped up on the Hokage's desk as Naruto closed the door behind him and Kyu, who dispelled himself as soon as they were in the hall.

There was a bit of shouting that Naruto didn't bother listening to, then silence. Finally, Kurama scratched at the door, letting Naruto know he could come in now.

Naruto opened the door, finding the Hokage passed out on his desk. "What did you say to him, Kurama-sensei? I've never gotten him to pass out before."

"I believe it was from shock," Kurama said finally. "He'll wake up again in a bit. Let's come back tonight, maybe he'll have recovered then."

"But, where will I go?" Naruto asked, poking the Hokage in the head a few times. "Wow, he's really out."

"Why don't we go see that training field, we were going to do it tomorrow, but now seems like a good of a time as ever."

"Do you know the way?" Naruto asked, tilting his head.

Kurama jumped up on the desk, then up onto Naruto's head. "Of course I do, that's how I know about it."

"Lead the way then, I guess," Naruto said, shrugging.

Kurama pointed to the door, and Naruto walked out the door, following the kitsune's directions all the way to a training field on the edge of the village.

Kurama dispelled himself as they entered the field, not wanting to cause the kit any more harm. If there was anyone in the clearing, they might react badly to seeing Naruto with a fox.

Naruto advanced warily, looking around the clearing before going into it fully. As there was no one there, he formed a shadow clone, creating both Kyu and Kurama.

"We need to work on only summoning Kurama," Kyu noted, dispelling himself.

Kurama bobbed his small head. "Perhaps tomorrow. For now, let's see if we can get you up a tree."

"But I already know how to climb trees," Naruto protested. "Trees are safe, except when ninja are in the mob. They can climb trees faster than me."

"You'll be climbing a tree without hands. Get Kyu out here to demonstrate," Kurama ordered.

Naruto obediently formed the cross seal, a Kyu clone with purple eyes and three Naruto clones appearing with puffs of smoke.

"Alright, Kyu clone, demonstrate the tree walking exercise. Three Naruto clones, you'll try tree climbing alongside the original until you pop," Kurama ordered, sitting down on his haunches.

Kyu walked up to the tree, then placed his foot on the bark, and began walking up the tree.

Naruto's eyes were shining. "Woah! If I can do that, I can be really fast at climbing up trees!"

"You can also do that with buildings, and upside down," Kurama told him. "Helpful for escaping civilian mobs."

Naruto nodded sagely. "Okay. How does it work?"

"You channel chakra to your feet. Too little and you slip, too much and you blast a nice hole in the tree."

"Cool!" Naruto ran at the tree, getting two steps up, then blasting off. The other three clones began running up a tree as well, blasting off after only a few steps.

"Controlling your emotions is the first step to controlling your chakra," Kurama advised. "Calm mind, calm chakra."

"This is a first," a male voice said, it's owner stepping out into the clearing. "Well, a couple of firsts. A talking fox is new, aside from being a summon, you aren't a summon, right?"

Kurama thought about it. "Sort of."

The voice's owner, a teenaged Uchiha, made a face. "How can you be sort of a summon?"

Kurama made an almost shrugging motion, modified for him being a fox. "There are a few ways."

A second Uchiha walked into the clearing, regarding the scene calmly. "It appears this training ground is occupied."

"Which is my second first. How did you find your way here? It isn't a well-known training ground."

"Which is why we use it," the second Uchiha muttered. "So we aren't disturbed."

"Oh come on, Itachi, we can share for a bit, besides, it's just a little kid. Which is my third first, an academy student doing the tree climbing exercise."

"I'm not in the academy," Naruto told the nice Uchiha. "Hokage-Jiji says I have to wait until next year."

"So, you're Mikoto's oldest," Kurama noted. "How's your little brother?"

"He is well," Itachi said. "How do you know us? Aside from the fact I am well known around the village."

Kurama darted over, climbed up the stationary Naruto, and perched on his head. "Would you believe me if I said I was the Kyuubi?"

The first Uchiha's face hardened, and he assumed a wary stance. Itachi also shifted into a wary stance, ready to spring into action. "Why are you loose?" Itachi asked.

"Technically, I'm not loose. Naruto is free to dispel me at any time. If I'm hit too hard, I will dispel."

"And you aren't controlling him?" The first Uchiha asked.

"Of course not," Naruto replied this time. "Kurama-Sensei is too nice for that."

Itachi raised an eyebrow at the fox, and he shrugged. "The kit asked me to train him, I said yes."

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki!" Naruto decided to introduce himself, bounding up to the two Uchiha. He stuck out his hand, a smile on his face. Kurama and the two Uchiha could tell it was fake, it was clear he was expecting to be rejected.

Shisui dropped his wary stance, adopting an equally wide smile. "I'm Shisui Uchiha, nice to meet you Naruto."

"Will you be my friend? Kurama-Sensei says that Uchiha are nice and make good friends," Naruto informed them.

Shisui's smile became fond. "Alright, I'll be your friend."

"Will you?" Naruto asked, turning to Itachi.

Itachi took one look at Shisui's face and sighed. "Alright, I'll be your friend."

Naruto did a little happy dance. "Maybe I should've asked the older kids first! You're much nicer than the people at the park. They don't ever want to be my friend for more than one day. You won't not be my friend tomorrow, right?"

Shisui grinned at the kid. "Of course. We can be your friend for more than one day."

Kurama nodded gratefully at the two Uchiha. He could tell the older one wasn't affected by the curse of hatred, which was rare. He wasn't sure about the younger, but he doubted it.

"Who's your friend over there?" Itachi asked, gesturing to Kyu, who appeared to be sleeping, stuck to the tree by his back, a good four feet off the ground.

Kyu opened his eyes and jumped down. "My name is Kyu. I am what happens when Naruto makes a shadow clone with both his, and Kurama's chakra."

Shisui And Itachi blinked. "So, you're a completely separate personality?" Shisui asked.

Kyu nodded. "Yes. I am not in the cage, however, and am free to roam around Naruto's mindscape."

"Cage?" Itachi asked.

"Naruto's seal has me in a cage. Much more comfortable than being chained to a moon," Kurama admitted. "And yes, my name is Kurama. Did you really think my name was Kyuubi? That would be like calling you 'no-tails'."

The two Uchiha had to admit that made sense.

"Why did you attack Konoha?" Shisui asked.

Kurama sighed. "I was really hoping to avoid this until Naruto was a bit older, but I guess it's inevitable. I was controlled by a rogue Uchiha with the Mangekyo Sharingan. And yes, I can sense you have it, Shisui-san."

Shisui blinked, taking a half step backward.

"My sensory abilities are only enhanced by the kit's innate sensory abilities. I can sense a lot of things I can't normally."

"What does innate mean?" Naruto asked.

"You have it naturally. You'll always have it and always have," Kurama replied. "We'll work on it later."

"So, you're actually helping him?" Shisui asked, not quite able to believe it.

"Where do you think he learned tree walking?" Kurama pointed out. "And, Kushina knew where this was, therefore I knew where this was. Kushina was my previous host."


	4. Chapter 4

**(A/N) Hi! Ruru, Yes. The matron had a stroke with the Kyu stunt. For everyone: The color of Kyu's eyes changes depending on how much biju chakra is put in him. Purple when there's a bit less, red when there's a bit more. They'll learn to control it at some point. **

Itachi tilted his head. "I think I remember her, but I was a little kid."

"The real question is why didn't Mikoto take in Naruto. I remember Kushina writing her will, just in case, and it stipulated that Naruto was to be given to Mikoto. Naruto's dad had agreed."

Itachi sighed. "No one ever saw the will, I suppose the council went against it. They forbade any of the Uchiha to take in Naruto."

"Let me guess," Kurama all but growled. "No one but Danzo will ever be allowed to take him in."

"What do you know of Danzo?" Shisui asked, eyes hardening.

"His roots are hidden in darkness, and should be cut completely," Kurama replied. "Kyu, take Naruto somewhere else, he doesn't need to hear this."

Kyu scooped Naruto up before he could protest, darting off.

Kurama watched them go, then turned back to the two Uchiha. "Danzo has plans, none of them good. I can sense his agents, most are little more than cannon fodder, but some can rival even you two."

"What did you mean by 'the only person who could take in Naruto would be Danzo'?" Itachi asked urgently.

"He most likely wants Naruto as a weapon. It's not hard to figure out. He may be the one who leaked Naruto's jinchuriki status to the village."

"Naruto is one of the few jinchuriki not being used as a weapon," Shisui pondered. "Not that I've seen that many. They aren't usually out in public."

"None of my hosts have been used as weapons. Not yet. Kushina and Mito Uzumaki's status as jinchuriki were hidden, barely anyone knew. Kushina had to give birth outside the village because there is a high likelihood of the seal breaking during childbirth, whether I'm trying to escape or not."

Itachi frowned. "Who was his father? If Kushina Uzumaki was his mother, he must look like his father…" Itachi trailed off, looking up at the Yondamine's face on the mountain. "Hey, Shisui, you'll remember better than me, wasn't Lord Fourth blond haired with blue eyes?"

Kurama decided to let them figure it out for themselves.

"Yeah, that's right," Shisui agreed. He blinked, opened his mouth, then closed it again. "Wow, um, the resemblance is uncanny."

"And it would make sense, who else could be his father? Who else is famous enough for the kid to not know his parents?"

"I think Kushina was close with him," Shisui agreed, shell shocked.

"You're right," Kurama told them. "Minato Namikaze was Naruto's father."

The two Uchiha were dumbstruck. Itachi's face had barely changed, but Shisui's face was just comical.

"You can pick your jaw off the floor now, Uchiha," Kurama said dryly. "Bugs will fly in."

Shisui shut his mouth with a 'click'. He blinked bashfully. "Sorry, that's just… wow."

Kurama sighed. "I don't know how no one noticed this before, especially people who knew both Kushina and Minato. Unfortunately, Naruto picked up his mother's verbal tic, it gets worse the more excited he is."

"So it is genetic," Shisui said, grinning. "I told you, Itachi, I told you it was genetic and you refused to believe me until Naruto started doing it. What's he say?"

"Dattebayo," Kurama replied, flicking his tail. "I'll get out of your way. Perhaps I will see you around at some point."

"Why don't you three join us for dinner?" Itachi asked. "Mother will be excited to see Naruto."

Kurama smiled gently. "Sure. I'll tell Naruto. What time?"

"Around 6," Itachi told him. "See you then."

"What, I'm not invited?" Shisui asked, fake hurt.

Kurama rolled his eyes, leaping away into the undergrowth as Itachi's flat answer reached his ears. "You're over all the time anyway."

He lept through the undergrowth, trying to avoid anything that could dispel him. He reached the nearest training ground, finding Naruto asleep on Kyu's lap, the teen shadow clone sleeping as well, leaned up against a tree. Kurama smiled fondly, curling up on Naruto's tiny lap and falling asleep as well. They might as well take a nap to waste away the afternoon. Not like they had much else to do.

"Are you sure that's the best idea?" Shisui asked his long-time friend. "Who knows how Fugaku-sama will respond!"

"My father will have to respect that I brought him over. Mother will be delighted, and Father will not go against her so directly," Itachi replied, his face betraying no emotion.

"And Kyu and Kurama? They're both shadow clones. Can they even eat? Have we even tried that?" Shisui got distracted quickly, musing about whether shadow clones could eat.

Itachi mentally facepalmed. His friend, despite being around 3 years his senior, could be so immature at times. And so very easily distracted.

Shisui sighed, abandoning the thought for later. "Spar? Or shuriken jutsu practice?"

"Spar," Itachi decided, after a moment of deliberation.

Shisui moved so he was a little ways away from Itachi, and facing him. He made the seal of confirmation, and Itachi did the same. A feather from some birds flying overhead floated down, and as soon as it touched the ground, both Uchiha opened their eyes, sharingans blazing.

After the two Uchiha finished their spar, they set off in search of Naruto and the two shadow clones. Itachi remembered which way Kurama ran off, so it wasn't that hard to find the three.

"Aww," Shisui cooed. "Aren't they cute." He activated his Sharingan for a moment, just enough to permanently burn the adorable image into his mind. An asleep Kyu had a sleeping Naruto on his lap, arms curled loosely around the sleeping four-year-old. The tiny Kurama was asleep on Naruto's lap.

"If you say so," Itachi agreed blandly.

Shisui sweatdropped. "Right, should we wake them?"

"If they don't want to be late for dinner, it would be advised," Itachi replied.

Kurama lazily lifted his head, staring them down. He yawned, showing them his very sharp teeth. "Good afternoon."

"Good afternoon," Itachi replied politely.

Kurama flicked his tail underneath Naruto's nose, making him wake up with a sneeze. Kyu also awakened, spotting Itachi and Shisui.

"Good afternoon," Kyu greeted.

Shisui grinned, leaning over to ruffle Naruto's hair. "Afternoon, you awake now?"

Naruto yawned hugely. "I guess." He rubbed one eye sleepily. Shisui internally cooed at the kid. He was adorable.

Kurama nosed the kid with his nose. "Come on, up you come."

Naruto got to his feet, blinking the sleepiness away. "Where are we going?"

"I believe we're going with Itachi. He invited us over for dinner."

Naruto lit up at that. "Really?" He paused then frowned slightly. "Do you have to go away?"

"Dispel? You'd have to ask Itachi," Kurama said gently. "I will probably have to. Kyu may not. He does have the purple eyes right now."

"Does he not always have purple eyes?" Shisui asked, offering Kyu a hand.

Kyu took the hand and pulled himself up. "I had red eyes the first time I was summoned."

Itachi tilted his head. "I wonder what causes the eye color change?"

"Don't we have to go?" Kurama interrupted, glancing up at the sun.

Itachi also glanced at the sun and nodded. "If we don't want to be late for dinner, yes." He headed off into the undergrowth, Shisui shooing Naruto, Kyu, and Kurama that direction, before following.

Naruto followed the nice Uchiha through the bushes, Kyu right behind him, and Kurama sitting on his head. He wondered if Itachi's parents would let him play with him after they met him. Maybe they were nice Uchiha too! And Kurama-sensei had said something about Itachi having a little brother, maybe he'd be Naruto's friend too! Then he'd have three friends! Or none at all, if Itachi's parents weren't nice Uchiha. What about Shisui, was Shisui related to Itachi? Would his parents tell him he couldn't be Naruto's friend?

Kurama sensed Naruto beginning to get distressed, and sighed, nosing the head he was sitting on. "It'll be fine kit. Mikoto knew of me when I was sealed in Kushina, and I'm pretty sure Fugaku knew too. They probably won't stop their kits from playing with you."

"I am old enough to make my own decisions," Itachi said, twisting slightly to glance back at them. "They cannot stop me from being your friend."

Naruto nodded, relieved. Well, that was one friend he'd still have.

"Well, you don't have to be worried about me either kid, I don't have any parents to tell me no!" Shisui said cheerfully, a sad look in his eyes. It disappeared soon after, and Shisui moved like he was going to ruffle Naruto's hair, but stopped, as Kurama was still sitting on Naruto's head.

"But Kurama-sensei says that if you didn't have a mother, you couldn't exist," Naruto protested.

Shisui laughed. "Oh, I had parents, they died."

Naruto made an 'ooh' face and smiled at Shisui. "I'm sorry you don't have any parents."

Shisui blinked. "Why are you sorry? You don't have any either."

Naruto thought about it. "Yeah, but Kurama-sensei says they died protecting me, so they must have loved me lots."

"You're their kid, of course, they loved you lots," Shisui replied, twitching like he wanted to ruffle Naruto's hair. Kurama rolled his eyes, and used chakra to enhance his jump so he could sit on Shisui's head. If he wanted to ruffle the kit's hair, that was fine. Kurama would just have to use his head instead. And his hair was quite soft.

Shisui grinned, not seeming to care that his head was Kurama's new perch. He happily ruffled Naruto's spiky blond hair, and Naruto leaned into the positive touch.


	5. Chapter 5

**(A/N) Hello! Ruru, thy answer is at the end. It was too long to have here, people'd get bored! Maybe. Depends on the person probably. Quick reminder that this Sasuke is the one before the massacre. He still has his older brother. And is massively protective of him *sweatdrops*.**

Kurama frowned slightly at Naruto's reaction to the touch. He'd guessed that Naruto may be slightly touch-deprived, but this was ridiculous. Now he was just wishing he'd woken up earlier, but Minato taking away half of him had put a massive strain on him, and he'd needed to sleep it off. He was mostly recovered, thank Kami.

Naruto's stomach grumbled loudly, and the kit blushed. "Oops, I guess I'm hungry." He rubbed the back of his head bashfully.

"Yes," Kurama noted sarcastically, "Just hungry, when you haven't had food in over 24 hours."

"My mother is going to kill the matron of that orphanage," Itachi noted. "She will have help."

"Powerful help," Shisui muttered mutinously under his breath.

"Something tells me that once the Hokage awakens, he won't stop you," Kurama mentioned.

"Once he awakens?" Itachi asked, turning his head to stare at Kurama. He had to look up to do it, as Shisui was taller than he was, and Kurama was on Shisui's head.

"He passed out after Kurama-sensei had a chat with him," Naruto told the two Uchiha.

"Must have been some chat," Shisui noted.

"I'll tell you later," Kurama promised.

"Is that the Uchiha house?" Naruto asked, amazed. "It's huge!"

"It has to be large. It holds a lot of people," Itachi said blandly. "Come, this way."

A woman opened the door before Itachi even touched the handle, smiling at the group. "Itachi, you said you had a friend you wanted to bring to dinner, you forgot to mention it was Naruto. And whoever that is." Mikoto looked at Kyu. "What's your name dear?"

Kyu blinked, then bowed to her. "Mikoto-Sama, I am called Kyu."

She smiled. "You're very polite young man."

Kyu glanced at Kurama, who had remained perched on Shisui's head. "You could say I was raised to be polite."

"You weren't raised at all," Naruto said, confused.

Kurama laughed. "Well, I was, so we'll go with that."

Mikoto raised an eyebrow at Kurama. "Shisui."

"Yes, Mikoto-sama?" He asked, slightly nervously.

"Why is the Kyuubi on your head?"

"Um," he said, glancing up.

Kurama pushed some chakra into his legs, and jumped to Kyu's head, sitting back down. "My name is Kurama, Mikoto-sama, this is merely a shadow clone with my chakra."

"You'll have to properly explain later," Mikoto said regretfully. "We have dinner ready, you were almost late." She stepped aside, allowing them entry into the house.

Naruto follows the older kids into the house, treading cautiously. He didn't want to make anyone mad, they might not be his friend, or toss him out or something.

"**No need to be this worried, Kit. Just so you know, proper etiquette means you need to call that guy at the head of the table Fugaku-sama."**

"_Alright, thanks Kurama-sensei!" _

"**Of course, kit. Do try and be polite while eating though?"**

Naruto stopped dead, staring at the really long table, with only two people at it. One his age, the other one the person he assumed was Fugaku-sama. There was so much food on it! He'd never seen so much food in his life!

"Fugaku, dear, this is Naruto and Kyu. The fox is named Kurama," Mikoto stared at him, challenging Fugaku to disagree, or break the Fourth's law.

He merely nodded, gesturing to the empty seats on his left.

Itachi took the seat next to Fugaku, Naruto next to him, Shisui after Naruto, and Kyu on the end. Mikoto was on Fugaku's left, and Sasuke was next to her.

They ate in silence, Sasuke glaring daggers at Shisui, Naruto, and Kyu the entire time. Kurama said he was jealous, but Naruto couldn't understand why. Afterall, he got to eat really yummy food like this all the time. And he had parents and a big brother who loved him.

After dinner was done, Fugaku left, and Mikoto sent Sasuke to get ready for bed, leading the others into her office.

"Alright, explain," Mikoto said, sitting down at her desk and looking at Itachi and Shisui.

Itachi nodded. "We arrived at our usual training field, the one you showed us, Kaa-san, and saw Naruto and two shadow clones of himself attempting tree climbing. Kyu appeared to be sleeping, using chakra to stick himself by his back to one of the trees. Kurama was standing a little to the side, watching Naruto. We talked for a while, Kyu taking Naruto away about halfway through our conversation due to the sensitive subject matter. I requested Kurama, Naruto, and Kyu join us for dinner, and Kurama left. Shisui and I trained for a while, then went to find them."

"We found them asleep, but they all woke up quickly. Then we came here, and you know the rest," Shisui finished. He glanced at Naruto, who was yawning and rubbing his eyes.

"I am not permitted to keep him here," Mikoto said regretfully, "Shisui, would you be able to care for him? Just for the night. Tomorrow we can return him to the orphanage."

"That will not be possible," Kurama said, glancing at Naruto, specifically at the backpack still on his back. "The Orphanage Matron kicked him out. We were going to see the Hokage about it, but it devolved into me scolding him for not caring for Naruto. Then he fainted, and we left for the training field."

Shisui blinked. "The Third Hokage, fainted?"

Kurama nodded, a faint smile on his lips. "Yes, he passed out quite spectacularly. Either way, I was going to request for an apartment, like they do with orphaned genin."

"That just won't do," Mikoto said, frowning deeply. "I will not have Kushina's child live like that. I turned a blind eye for years. I can't do it any longer. Screw Danzo, I'll adopt him no matter what threats he makes."

"An apartment would be fine. Kyu is more than capable of taking care of Naruto without help. He has most of my knowledge. And he has opposable thumbs." Kurama shook his head, ruffling the fur. "And it wouldn't endanger any of you."

"He hasn't forbidden me from doing anything," Shisui spoke up suddenly. "My apartment has room for two, I can take him in, but older brother instead of parent."

Kurama flicked his tail. "We can't ask you to do that. The academy starts soon anyway."

"I've always wanted a little brother," Shisui insisted. "And it won't be much trouble. You and Kyu can help anyway."

"If you're so determined," Kurama sighed. He glanced at Naruto, noting he'd fallen asleep. "I guess we'll ask him in the morning."

Mikoto frowned. "One other thing, now that the child is asleep. Why did you attack Konoha?"

Kurama's ears drooped. "I had no choice. An Uchiha controlled me, it's all a blur, right up until I came to with one of my claws straight through Kushina and Minato."

"An Uchiha? One of ours?" Itachi asked.

Kurama shook his head. "No, none of you. He had a black cloak, and a mask that covered his entire face, except for his left eye."

"So, should you be set free, you wouldn't attack humans?"

"Unless they attack one of my kits, no. Should someone attempt to attack my kit, they will be dead in under four seconds." Kurama said it with a perfectly neutral face. "And, as I am several thousand years older than all of you, all of you would be counted as kits."

"I dunno whether to feel insulted or honored…" Shisui muttered.

"Honored," Kyu reassured him. "Few are regarded as kits to biju. Generally limited to the host, as few are kind to jinchuuriki."

"And here I thought I'd grown out of being called a kid," Shisui whined, a dark cloud hanging over his head.

Itachi patted him, and he straightened up.

Mikoto shook her head fondly. "I'll let you guys go. I have my questions answered for now. Besides, you should get Naruto to bed."

Shisui nodded, leading Kurama and Kyu out the door, Kyu holding the sleeping Naruto. Itachi followed them, silent until they reached Shisui's house. While Kyu got Naruto settled in for the night, Shisui and Itachi drew Kurama aside.

"Kurama, we have a problem," Itachi began.

Kurama sat down, tilting his head. "What?"

"The Uchiha clan is planning a coup," Shisui said, face darkening.

Kurama sat back on his haunches. "And the Hokage knows, right?"

Itachi nodded. "We are reporting it to him."

Kurama nodded. "Have negotiations begun?"

Shisui shook his head. "As far as we know, no."

Kurama sighed deeply. This was a problem, and not just for the Uchiha. "Are there any plans in place to counter it right now?"

"I have a plan to use my Kotoamatsukami to change Fugaku's mind about it, but Danzo is trying to shoot me down," Shisui said, frowning at the thought of the Konoha elder.

"Keep an eye out," Kurama warned. "Kushina was not fond of him and was quite wary. He's power-hungry, and I fear he may attempt to steal one or both of your eyes."

Shisui nodded. "I'll try and be accompanied by someone at all times."

Kurama nodded. "That's all we can do for now. Until negotiations are opened, we can't do anything short of massacring all adults who are aware of the coup."

Itachi bowed his head. "I am afraid it may come to that."

"Be prepared is the only thing I can tell you," Kurama told them.

**(A/N) Since apparently I missed the review on chapter three, sorry about not replying to that one, Ruru, I'll do it now! And well, Shisui's my favorite character, so it was kinda inevitable. As for asking Kurama, why not? After all, he's what, thousands of years old? He's bound to be able to help. And maybe even stop the massacre. And Kyu, well, he's in Naruto's head, and due to being older(physically and mentally) then Naruto, and, y'know, not being a fox and having opposable thumbs, he can help Naruto more than Kurama can. And if he has purple eyes, he can do things that Naruto can't normally without being kicked out/glared at the entire time. (Aka, yes, he's important, not put on a Genin team important, since technically he's a shadow clone at best, but still important) Moving on to chapter 4 notes, I'm happy to have made your morning! The things these characters come up with… Anyway, hand twitches, must ruffle the tiny human's hair, there's just a fox in the way… As for Danzo, *grins evilly and rubs hands together* he still has plans that need to be foiled. And, it's an insult to cockroaches to call Danzo a cockroach. And, well, the ANBU probably woke Hiruzen up after Naruto and Kurama left. And, who knows, we may see what Kurama told Hiruzen at some point via flashback. I can tell you it involved a lot of chewing out. **


	6. Chapter 6

**(A/N) Hello! Here you lot go, Hizuen's chewing out and subsequent fainting spell. **

**Hiruzen's POV, Flashback**

_He had been working on paperwork, as was the bane of all kage. Well, any leader, really. He looked up as Naruto walked in, a preoccupied look on his face, and the backpack Hiruzen had gotten him the other day on his back._

"_Naruto, what brings you in here?" Hiruzen asked, slightly worried as Naruto's eyes started tearing up as he sat down in the chair in front of Hiruzen's desk. _

"_Why didn't you tell me about Mr. Kurama?" The four-year-old asked. _

"_Mr. Kurama?" Hiruzen asked, surprised, and beginning to worry even more. _

"_The giant orange bunny rabbit," Naruto explained. _

_Hiruzen blinked, confused. Then he pieced it together, just as Naruto corrected himself. _

"_Oh, sorry Kurama-sensei. He says he's a fox, not a bunny rabbit." _

_Hiruzen had to stop himself from immediately calling for Tenzo, but was sure his shock was plastered all over his face. _

"_Oh, that's the Kyuubi, Naruto. He killed your parents," Hiruzen told the boy gently. He had to fix this, he had to make sure the fox didn't corrupt the child. _

_Naruto blinked, then appeared to have a conversation with someone Hiruzen couldn't hear. "But what can control you? You're so big and smart and powerful!" He paused, listening, then continued. "Who's Madara Uchiha? And what's an Uchiha?" _

_Hiruzen felt a bit faint, this was not going according to any plan he'd ever thought of. _

_Naruto nodded. "Are Uchiha nice?" Hiruzen nearly choked on air at that one. "Would they be my friend like how Mikoto-san was my mom's friend?" _

_Hiruzen nearly had an aneurysm at that one, how did the kid know of his parents? And who in kami was he having a conversation with?_

"_Okay, I'll find a nice Uchiha to be my friend!" Naruto announced, standing on his chair, a wide grin splitting his face. _

"_Naruto," Hiruzen said calmly, "The Kyuubi is evil, he's just trying to corrupt you and escape." _

_Naruto blinked, and sat back down with a thump. He remained staring off into nothing for a few seconds. _

_He refocused on Hiruzen, and had the most heartbroken expression that Hiruzen had ever seen on a child. "Why didn't you tell me about my parents? Kurama-sensei had to tell me who they were." _

_Hiruzen almost fainted at that one. The Kyuubi, the terrifying nine-tailed fox, had apparently taken pity on a four-year-old child and told him who his parents were. _

"_Hokage-jiji," Naruto said abruptly. "Kurama-sensei says he wants to talk to you and promises not to attack you no matter what." _

_Hiruzen didn't respond, he was a bit busy trying to work out why the Kyuubi, destroyer supreme, would do this to a child. _

_Hiruzen nearly had a heart attack when the kid somehow made two shadow clones, one a strange teenager that looked almost exactly like Kushina, except for the fact that he was clearly a male. The other clone was a normal-sized fox, a bushy, white-tipped tail waving behind it. _

"_Okay, Hokage-jiji, I'm gonna go in the hall with Kyu. You can have a talk with Kurama-sensei!" _

_The fox hopped up on his desk as the door closed behind the teenager, apparently named Kyu, and Naruto. _

_The fox sat down on top of one of his stacks of paperwork and stared at him. "In case you were wondering, yes, I am the Kyuubi, and my name is Kurama." _

_Hiruzen nodded mutely. _

"_Do you have any idea how Naruto is treated?" Kurama asked conversationally, tilting his head. _

_Hiruzen nodded again. "I can do nothing to stop it, I cannot order people to like him." _

_Kurama snorted. "No, I'm referring to the Orphanage. The matron was basically starving him. Forcing him to work without breakfast or lunch, and he rarely got dinner. The matron has since kicked Naruto out of the orphanage." _

_Hiruzen actually fainted, an ANBU jumping down to catch him as he almost fell out of his seat, and lay him across his desk. The ANBU disappeared into the rafters again. _

_Kurama snorted, then hopped off the desk. _

Shisui started laughing. "Wow, that's a new one!"

Itachi's face remained impassive, but his twitching lips gave him away.

Kurama nodded, glancing at the still sleeping Naruto. "He was certainly surprised. I hope he doesn't faint again when we go in today."

"Me too, that would be awkward," Shisui muttered. "Did Kyu dispel?"

Kurama nodded. "He dispelled himself to let the kit's chakra recover. I am being sustained by my own chakra with no cost to the kit."

Itachi stood up, glancing into the other room. "Naruto is waking up. Kaa-san insisted you come over for breakfast, whenever Naruto wakes up."

"Explains why you were at my apartment at five in the morning," Shisui muttered, yawning. "I'm not Gai, that's too early to be awake."

"I agree with him," Kurama agreed, jumping up onto Shisui's head.

"Am I going to be your ride this whole time?" Shisui asked, standing up.

"Probably," Kurama admitted. "Your hair is softer than Naruto's."

"Uh, thanks?"

"Oh, good morning Naruto," Itachi said, nodding to the sleepy child.

"Morning," Naruto said, yawning widely. "Where are we?"

"We're at Shisui's house," Kurama supplied. "Why don't you find your shoes? They should be next to your backpack. We're going back over to Itachi's place for breakfast."

Naruto yawned, causing the yawning to spread to both Itachi and Shisui. Kurama was unaffected. For the moment.

Naruto wandered back into the room he'd been sleeping in, coming back out with his shoes on. "Do I need my backpack?"

"If we need it, we'll come back and get it," Shisui assured him. "This is just breakfast anyway."

"Oh," Naruto said in a small voice. "Okay!" He looked up and grinned widely. "Let's go eat breakfast!"

Shisui smiled at him and ruffled his hair. "Alright kit."

"Not you too!" Naruto complained as Itachi led them out the door and back to his house.

"It's a cute nickname," Kurama argued.

Naruto pouted and moved to walk next to Itachi instead. Shisui pouted at the four-year-old's back.

"You're just in time," Mikoto said, smiling as they walked up. Itachi nodded respectfully to his mother, Naruto was attempting to imitate him, but failing adorably and spectacularly.

Shisui and Kurama had more success nodding respectfully to Mikoto as they passed.

"What are you planning to do today?" Mikoto asked them as they sat down. Fugaku was nowhere to be seen.

"Go see the Hokage, then, I dunno, get Naruto new clothes maybe," Shisui shrugged.

"Can they be orange?" Naruto asked immediately.

Shisui grinned. "I'm sure we could manage at least a little bit of orange."

Naruto beamed at him, running up to hug him around the knees, which was about as high as Naruto could reach. Shisui patted him on the head, then detached himself and sat down at the table. "Good morning Sasuke."

Sasuke stuck his nose in the air and poked at the pancakes in front of him.

Shisui sweatdropped. "Sasuke," he said plantativley. "Not even a hello?"

Sasuke still didn't reply, and Shisui slumped, poking at his pancakes half-heartedly.

"If you don't eat those quickly," Kurama advised, "or Naruto's going to eat them for you. He's already eyeing them."

Needless to say, the pancakes disappeared pretty quickly after that.

"Have a good day boys," Mikoto called as Shisui and Itachi led Naruto to the Hokage tower.

"You too, Kaa-san," Itachi replied.

"Bye-bye!" Naruto said cheerfully, waving.

"Hey, Naruto," Shisui said, noting the glares at Naruto, and confused glances he and Itachi were getting. "Would you like to see a fancy jutsu in action? It's called Shunshin, and I'm famous for it."

Naruto cocked his head, then nodded. "Yeah! How are you gonna show it?"

"By using it to get us to the tower faster," Shisui replied, crouching down. "Climb on my back, and hold on tightly."

Naruto conceded, climbing onto Shisui's back and wrapping his arms and legs around him like an octopus.

Shisui shunshined into the main lobby of Hokage tower, as for the most part, ANBU were not fond of Shinobi randomly shunshining into the tower. The secretary waved them through, recognizing that all three were to be let in unless the Hokage was in an important meeting. They just usually weren't here at the same time, let alone with a fox. Fortunately, the secretary was immune to shinobi nonsense, as she was an ANBU in disguise.

Naruto stayed on Shisui's back for two reasons. A, he'd never had a piggyback ride before and it was kinda fun, and B, he wasn't entirely sure his legs would stay under him after the trip. It had been interesting, but disorienting.

"Shisui, Itachi, Kurama, Naruto, how are you doing?" The Third Hokage asked, smiling kindly at the four. "Is there a reason for this visit?"

Shisui nodded firmly, and Kurama was quite glad he was stuck to the boy's head by chakra or else he would've been discharged.

**(A/N) *cackles* I'm feeling particularly sadistic. Like the chewing out of Hiruzen Sarutobi? BYE!**


	7. Chapter 7

**(A/N) Hello! ****TBNRkurama: I'm glad you like it! Shisui will be getting a lot more screen time, trust me. Fox summoning contract, I was planning something of that sort, perhaps. When he's older. And er, Naruto's not gonna be a mini Kakashi for a few reasons… *whistles innocently* **

"Lord Third, I wish to request that Naruto stay with me," Shisui said. "And if Danzo says no, I'm gonna go ahead and do it anyway."

Hiruzen smiled fondly at the three. Well, four, as Kurama was perched on Shisui's head. "I will allow it."

Shisui smiled. "Wonderful!"

Itachi nodded to Shisui. "Clothing shopping."

Shisui grinned down at Naruto, ruffling his hair. "Come on, let's go find clothes. And Ninja supplies. And groceries. I'm gonna need some more."

Naruto grinned up at his new guardian, then followed him out. Shisui made a shadow clone to remain in the room, knowing what was going to happen.

"Did you want to speak to me about something, Shisui, Itachi?" The Hokage asked.

Itachi nodded. "We discussed it with Kurama."

Hiruzen sighed heavily. He activated the privacy seals, and sent the ANBU out. "What did he have to say?"

"If negotiations aren't opened soon, we may not be able to do anything short of massacring all adults that know about it," Shisui's clone said darkly.

Hiruzen sighed again. "I was afraid of that. I am doing everything I can, but nothing is working."

Shisui frowned. "Should it come to that, I request that both me and Itachi are held responsible. We'll become missing-nin, and protect the village from the outside."

Itachi shook his head. "No. Shisui, you can help me kill them, but you can't take the blame for it."

"I can and I will," Shisui said firmly. "What are friends for?"

"Shisui," Itachi sighed.

Hiruzen sighed. "Should that need to occur, I leave it to you to make preparations for what you will do once you have left."

Shisui's shadow clone nodded. "Is that all?"

The Hokage nodded. "You may dispell."

The shadow clone disappeared with a soft poof of smoke, sending the memories to the real Shisui, who was arguing with a storekeeper about prices. He didn't even miss a beat as the memories came, filing them away quickly. "Fine, I'll just talk to Fugaku. Or Mikoto. She wouldn't be happy about this." Shisui smirked at the shopkeeper, and left, four-year-old Naruto in tow. Kurama had decided to dispell, as foxes were not smiled upon in Konoha. Especially by the civilian populace. Not to mention seeing one with Naruto, who was still considered the demon in human form.

Shisui shooed Naruto into an alleyway and crouched down in front of him. "Naruto, to make this go a little faster, I'm going to show you a jutsu. It's called Henge. It makes you appear different."

Naruto smiled brightly. "Will it make people not glare at me?"

Shisui sighed. "Yes, it will. Here are the hand signs." He showed Naruto the hand signs. "Picture yourself with black hair and black eyes, that way they'll just think I somehow picked up a stray Uchiha orphan. Or that I took Sasuke shopping for some reason. Silly kid refuses to socialize, so almost no one knows what he looks like anyway."

Naruto nodded, doing the hand signs, and ending up as a very cute little black-haired, black-eyed kid. "Did I do good?"

Shisui smiled. "Yep, come on, let's go try that place across the street. I thought I saw some orange inside."

Naruto's face lit up, and they crossed the busy street, Naruto running in immediately to look at the shirts, finding an orange one almost immediately. He held it up, and Shisui smiled encouragingly. He grinned and ran off to find some more orange things. Shisui followed him, selecting a couple of other clothing options, mostly in black and dark blue, both colors that went well with orange. He also grabbed a couple of burnt orange shirts, to contrast the neon orange Naruto was grabbing.

Finally, they managed to get enough clothes to last a week, plus a couple of extras, and paid for it.

The weapons shop was next, more so for Shisui, as he was running low on Kunai, but he grabbed a blunted set for Naruto to practice with.

Itachi joined them as they walked towards the actual grocery store, intent on getting actual groceries. Shisui had realized he did not have nearly enough food in his cupboards to feed himself, let alone him plus a growing kid.

They managed to make it out, and then into the Uchiha compound before Naruto's henge fell, startling an Uchiha who'd been walking around.

"Well, Naruto, why don't you go see if you can put most of your clothes into the closet in the room you woke up in. Keep one out to put on, though," Shisui instructed, putting food away. Itachi was helping him, organizing the fridge.

Naruto nodded, running off to put some better clothes on, clothes that weren't basically rags.

"He's such a sweet child," Shisui noted. "Really too bad the civilians can't tell the difference between a storage seal, and the kunai sealed inside, and have no respect for the Fourth's sealing abilities."

Itachi grunted.

"I mean, really, he's just a kid."

Itachi grunted again.

"I think we should take him with us, should the worst-case scenario occur."

Itachi grunted, then stared at Shisui in surprise. "Did I hear you correctly?"

Shisui nodded solemnly. "You probably did. He's hated by Konoha, and honestly, his new affiliation with the Uchiha clan isn't going to help anything."

"Lord Third won't like it," Itachi cautioned.

"So? He can't really stop us. And besides, we can bring Naruto back to be a genin for a little bit, if he really insists."

"The life of a missing-nin really isn't for children."

"Haven't you heard the rumors? I caught them from an Iwa jounin I ran into. He muttered something about one of their jinchuuriki not checking in, and the stupid guy being caught by some organization."

"Are they killing jinchuuriki? If so, why on earth are you considering them?"

Shisui shrugged. "We might as well look into it, maybe see if they're just catching jinchuuriki, not killing them."

"Asking Jiraya next time he's in town seems the best course of action."

Shisui nodded. "I agree. Kakashi might know some, he's one of the elite. We may also want to warn him of our departure with Naruto, should it come to that, we don't want him freaking out."

Itachi nodded. "Of course. Perhaps a note for Lord Third though, no?"

Shisui nodded, smiling wryly. "Don't want him stopping us. We would need some way to communicate with him, so we can pass information on."

Itachi nodded, and was about to say something, but was distracted by Naruto sliding into the kitchen in a neon orange t-shirt and dark blue pants.

"What are we doing now, Shisui-nii!" Naruto asked loudly, running up and looking at what he was doing, which was putting food away in cupboards.

Shisui pretended to think about it. "How about, Itachi, why don't you go pick up your little brother, and we can teach the boys how to throw kunai and shuriken properly."

Naruto's face lit up, and Itachi silently slid out of the kitchen.

"See you at training ground 45," Shisui called after him, naming the training ground they usually trained at.

Naruto bounced around Shisui, his mouth going nonstop. "Have you had ramen? It's only the greatest food in the world-" Shisui stopped him, a hand over his mouth.

"Never say that in front of Itachi," he warned. "Itachi will take it as an insult against his precious pocky."

"What's pocky?" Naruto asked, tilting his head.

Shisui blinked. "Never say that in front of Itachi either. Here, I should have a package of it around here somewhere." He dug around in his cupboards, simultaneously putting food away, and searching for the box of Pocky he kept around the house, should Itachi end up at his house cause he had another disagreement with his father. It had been happening with alarming regularity, and the Konoha police force even assigned him to keep an eye on Itachi.

He found the box, pulling it out, and handing a stick to Naruto, before putting the box away again. "Itachi loves the stuff."

Naruto basically inhaled the stick, and nodded. "Not as good as ramen, but it's okay."

Shisui laughed. "Just don't say that in front of Itachi. He'll take it as a personal insult."

Naruto cocked his head. "Why?"

Shisui tilted his head. "Well, he really likes pocky, and basically worships the stuff. Either way, we should get going, It's longer to the training ground from here than from Itachi's house."


	8. Chapter 8

**(A/N) TBNRkurama: *grins* You're welcome!**

**Approximately 2 months later**

"Shisui-nii, it's fine," Naruto insisted, folding his arms as Shisui messed with his hair.

"It's your first day at the academy!" Shisui insisted right back

"It's not that important," Naruto muttered grumpily.

"Is too," Kyu and Kurama said at once, both out and lounging on separate chairs.

"Yeah," Shisui agreed, patting Naruto's head. "Alright, come on, I made a bento, and we can go meet Sasuke and walk with him."

Kurama jumped off the chair, stretching. "Come on Kit, let's go."

Kyu set aside the book he'd been reading and stood up. "I can drop you off, but then I'm on Shisui watching duty cause Itachi's on a mission."

Shisui pouted. "You make it sound like I'm a dog."

Naruto hugged Shisui around the waist, which was as high as he could reach. "You're much too tall for a dog," he told Shisui solemnly.

"Thanks," Shisui told him. "Come on, out the door," Shisui grabbed Naruto's bento from the counter, shoved it into his hands, and herded him out the door, Kurama managing to get onto his usual spot, Shisui's head, and Kyu close behind. Shisui shut and locked the door behind them, happily herding them off through the Uchiha compound.

"Hey Shisui," Sasuke said, waving from his spot leaning against the wall.

"Good morning Sasuke, all ready for your first day at the academy?"

"Hn," Sasuke grunted.

Shisui beamed. "Great! Come on, we don't want to be late."

"Hello Sasuke," Kyu said, nodding to the Uchiha.

Sasuke nodded to the other three, falling in next to them as they walked.

In no time at all, they were at the academy, children standing with their parents, all there for the first day of the new academy year.

Shisui said goodbye to the two boys and the fox, sighing as he watched them disappear into the crowd of children. "I'm gonna miss Naruto getting under my feet."

Kyu snorted softly. "You get him back at the end of the school day."

Shisui blew out his cheeks in a pout. "I know that."

Kyu shook his head. "Come on, we have things to do."

Shisui sighed again, looking forlornly at the academy.

Kyu sweatdropped, grabbing Shisui's shoulder and steering him away from the academy. "Come on, we are leaving now. Danzo's been more active, so summon a crow would you?"

Shisui bit his thumb, drawing blood. He slammed his hand on the ground, shouting "Summoning Jutsu!" One puff of smoke later, and Shisui had a good sized crow in front of him, looking at him curiously.

Kyu smiled at the crow. "If you wouldn't mind keeping an eye out for Danzo. We're trying to make it through the week without any missing eyes."

The crow nodded, and hopped up on the very distracted Shisui's head. It promptly pecked him, startling him out of his sadness at not seeing his younger brother. The fact that said younger brother was adopted simply did not compute to Shisui, who'd gotten hopelessly attached.

Danzo approached them fairly soon after they dropped Naruto off, claiming he needed to talk to Shisui. Kyu and the crow, named Kuro, insisted on coming. As they were in an isolated training ground, it quickly dissolved into a fight. Especially when ROOT ANBU started coming out of the woodwork. Shisui dealt with them, and Kyu and Kuro dealt with Danzo. Or tried, anyway. Kyu had, through hours of sparring and practicing with Shisui and Itachi, gotten really, really good at avoiding things. Especially things that would pop him. He snuck in hits when he could, and he and Kuro played an interesting game of keep away.

Shisui cursed as a ROOT nearly took off his arm. "We need some help!" He shouted to Kyu and Kuro.

"Can you summon a few more crows?" Kyu shouted back. "I don't want to attempt summoning on my own, I don't have enough chakra."

"I'm not going to ask," Shisui decided, trading a few blows with a ROOT, before jumping back to bite his thumb and draw blood. Another ROOT came after him, and Shisui just rolled with it, performing the summoning jutsu right on the surprised ROOT's chest, throwing the nin back as a small flock of crows emerged from the puff of smoke. "Right, You guys, half of you help me, the other half go help Kuro and Kyu."

The crows split, half beginning their assault on the ROOT nin, the other half beginning an assault on Danzo.

All of a sudden, three of the nin fell, staring off into nowhere. A dark shadow emerged from the forest, a glinting tanto in his hands. "This is what happens when I leave you alone, Shisui," Itachi sniped, cutting down a very surprised ROOT.

Shisui pouted, ducking under a swing, and stabbing the owner of the sword in the gut. "It's not my fault!"

"This time!" Kyu shouted, ducking a hit from Danzo. "Itachi! Get over here and help me with this guy! I can only do so much damage!"

Itachi glanced at Shisui as he took out a few more ROOT. Shisui nodded, and Itachi went over to try and stab Danzo.

They fought for a couple more minutes before Danzo called a halt. He stepped back as the flock of crows circled above his head. "Do not think this will work again," he said ominously as he disappeared into the shadows.

Shisui cursed colorfully. "That son of Orochimaru," he spat.

"That's not technically possible, Danzo is older than Orochimaru," Itachi pointed out blandly.

"Also, that's totally an insult to Orochimaru," Kyu agreed, smirking widely.

Shisui snickered. "Right, sorry. My bad."

"Care to explain how this happened?" Itachi asked, watching the crows desummon themselves.

Shisui rubbed the back of his head. "Uh, Danzo was following us so we decided to try and see what he wanted without any casualties?"

Kyu nodded, then sighed. "I am low on chakra. As Itachi is here now, I can safely dispel. See you later."

Both teens nodded to him, and he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Itachi sighed, rubbing his face. "And here I was, hoping to just crash in bed for the next day and a half."

"We can go get dango," Shisui offered.

Itachi stared at him for a moment, then sighed again. "That's not going to substitute sleeping for a day and a half straight, but it'll do for now. That, and some coffee."

Shisui nodded amicably, and the two headed off.

Needless to say, Sasuke was surprised when his brother came with Shisui to pick him up. Naruto wasn't, as Kyu had told him Itachi had gotten back and taken over for him. Kyu and Kurama had agreed with Itachi and Shisui that they were going to avoid informing Naruto of this, if at all possible.

Itachi was holding a cup of coffee, but didn't look to bad, he was walking on his own, so that was good.

Shisui was rather harried, hair going everywhere, well, more than usual.

"Shisui-nii!" Naruto shouted, bouncing up to him. "We got to show off all our cool ninja skills!"

Shisui smiled tiredly. "Did you now? How'd it go?"

Naruto bounced up and down excitedly. "I think it went well! I showed off my shadow clones, and the teacher got this funny wide eyed look, like the one you got when you first had me create as many as I could!"

Shisui smiled, and ruffled Naruto's hair. "Good for you, the more surprised your teachers, the less they'll bother you."

Naruto grinned, and nodded.

Itachi ruffled Sasuke's hair, and glanced tiredly at Shisui. "Can you manage for a few hours while I drop my report off at Hokage Tower?"

Shisui nodded. "You can even sleep for the next day and a half when you're done."

Itachi sighed slightly. "We both know that's not going to happen."

"Never hurts to be optimistic," Shisui said, grinning. "Alright boys, come on, we should get you home. Sasuke, I think your mother is making Tomato soup for you."

Shisui was sure Sasuke got stars in his eyes. "Yummy," he muttered reverently.

"And Naruto, we can go get Ichiraku's tonight," Shisui allowed, smiling at Naruto.

Naruto cheered, and started jumping around as Itachi walked, well, a bit more like staggered, away.

Shisui sent a shadow clone after Itachi, half to make sure he got to the tower safely, and half to see if the Hokage had anything to say about Danzo's attack.

Naruto continued bouncing around Shisui, babbling on about anything and everything. Shisui just shook his head and walked the two back to the compound.


	9. Chapter 9

**(A/N) Vhaer: *chuckles nervously* Well… sorry? Wait until you see Shukaku, psychotic, but for a different reason. To everyone: just to be clear, Kurama does have the contract for the fox summon, but cannot technically use it. Kyu, however, as he has fingers, can use it, albeit with some difficultly as I don't think Shadow clones can bleed.**

Shisui's shadow clone and Itachi stood in front of the Hokage. Or rather, in front of Danzo, who was standing in front of the desk, and the Hokage right behind him.

"I'm a shadow clone by the way," Shisui warned them. "I do not have all day to exist."

The Hokage sighed. "I suppose you are correct. We do not have all day. I have paperwork. I will not beat around the bush, negotiations aren't going well, and the Uchiha aren't cooperating in the slightest. We have to implement that plan."

Shisui sighed, slumping slightly. "Alright, we'll begin preparations. Are all Uchiha in the compound?"

"For the next two days. The compound, and the police station. I requested they go through their ranks, so none of them will be out on patrol," Danzo rasped.

Itachi nodded stiffly. "It will be done."

The Hokage seemed to age ten years. "Thank you. Dismissed."

Shisui's shadow clone bowed his head, and disappeared.

"I am also here to deliver my mission report," Itachi noted, handing the Hokage a slip of paper. "I got back during a battle, and thus had no time to turn it in until now."

"A battle? Who were the sides?" The Hokage asked, not at all missing the subtle shifting of Danzo.

"Danzo and his ROOT agents, and Shisui, Kyu, and a flock or so of crows. I defended my cousin."

Danzo shifted again, feeling Hiruzen's eyes boring into his back.

Itachi raised an eyebrow at Danzo, then nodded to the Hokage. "If I may?"

Hiruzen sighed deeply. "Dismissed Itachi."

Itachi bowed, and walked out. Or staggered out. One of the two.

Hiruzen sighed, staring daggers at Danzo. "What do we do with you?" Hiruzen mumbled, setting aside the paperwork on his desk.

Shisui, or rather, another shadow clone, went in search of Kakashi. Finally, he found him talking to a couple other Jounin.

"Kakashi, May I borrow you for a moment?" Shisui asked politely.

Kakashi nodded, smiling and nodding at the Jounin he'd been talking to. He stepped away, following Shisui to a much quieter and more secure place.

Shisui looked him in the eye, and nodded. "It's time. That Plan is now being implemented. Tomorrow, you can get the boys?"

Kakashi nodded, his eye sharpening. "I'll be there to pick them up. You'll leave a scroll?"

Shisui nodded. "Thank you Kakashi."

Kakashi nodded. "For Sensei's son."

Shisui sighed, smiling slightly. "For Naruto."

Kakashi turned and lept away, and Shisui's shadow clone disappeared in a poof of smoke.

Shisui sighed, receiving the memories of the second shadow clone. Everything was ready, they just needed to execute the plan.

Naruto proudly held up his completed homework. "All done!"

Shisui smiled, taking the paper. Sasuke was still scribbling away at his paper. Shisui checked over the paper, then handed it back to Naruto. "Good job, go put that in your backpack, okay?"

Naruto nodded enthusiastically, taking the paper and running to his backpack. He had to take a sleeping Kurama off the backpack before he could put his homework away, but it got put away, and was ready for tomorrow.

Shisui smiled as Naruto ran back, sitting back down at the table and tapping his foot. Shisui handed him a book, and waited for Itachi to get home.

He got home about a minute after Naruto finished his homework. Shisui took one look at him, and rerouted him to the couch. "You need sleep. I'll tell Mikoto you two are staying the night."

Itachi just nodded, laying down on the couch and falling asleep. Shisui smiled at his friend, and went to find a blanket.

"I finished my homework," Sasuke said, brandishing a paper at Shisui.

Shisui smiled, and took the paper, looking it over. "Looks good, you can put it away. Pull out a book or something, we need to be quiet so Itachi can sleep, okay?"

The boys nodded, picking up their books and relocating to the kitchen. Shisui followed them after a last glance at Itachi. He'd check for wounds when Itachi woke up.

The next morning, they dropped the boys off at school, informing them that Kakashi would be the one picking them up that day. Neither boy actually knew what that meant, but Kurama and Kyu did. They both slept inside Naruto's mindscape, preparing for what was to come.

Shisui dropped a scroll with Naruto and Sasuke's belongings off with Kakashi, Kakashi tucking it securely in his pouch.

Itachi wrote up a note for the Hokage, detailing where they were going, and why they were taking who they were. He noted Shisui's insistence that they would drop by when Naruto was genin age, and stay at least until he became chuunin.

The Uchiha were investigating their own, as Danzo had said. Shisui would be taking care of the station, Itachi would take care of the compound. A genjutsu was set up so nothing would appear amiss, and the slaughter was due to begin as soon as Naruto and Sasuke were out of the village.

After receiving the scroll with Naruto and Sasuke's stuff, Kakashi packed up his own, leaving his apartment empty, and a note on the table for the landlord, and whoever else happened to require something of him.

Kakashi hummed a nonsense tune as he walked towards the academy. He'd packed his stuff up, and was all ready to defect from Konoha. It would be difficult, but what did he really have here? Sensei and his old team were dead, Sensei's son was treated like a demon incarnate, and he had failed any and all genin teams he'd been given. Sure, Gai would probably kill him for this, but he really couldn't do much. And he'd left Gai a note, hopefully he'd understand.

Kakashi waited patiently in front of the Academy, as it was due to let out soon.

Finally, the tiny children came pouring out, Naruto and Sasuke sort of lagging behind, chatting with each other, and a dark haired girl, who seemed to be blushing heavily. Naruto and Sasuke spotted him, and rushed over, dragging the girl with them.

"Kakashi-nii!" Naruto shouter, latching on to his legs, wrapping around them in a fun imitation of one of those constrictor snakes. "You're here to pick us up, right? This is Hinata, she's really nice, and pretty, and very smart!"

The girl, apparently named Hinata, blushed even heavier, and nearly fainted.

"But I think she's always sick, cause she's so red! But I don't think she has a fever, I mean, you can check, right Kakashi-nii?" Naruto didn't wait for an answer, detaching from him and grabbing his hand, pressing it to Hinata's forehead. "See?"

Kakashi took his hand back, and eye smiled at them. "She's perfectly fine Naruto, you can leave her be."

Naruto bobbed his head. "Alright, if you say so Kakashi-nii."

Hinata was very red now, and clearly on the verge of fainting.

"Alright Naruto, Sasuke, I'm collecting you for your brothers, so let's get a move on, alright?" Kakashi eye smiled again, and started herding the two boys away from the embarrassed girl.

Naruto nodded, and waved enthusiastically to Hinata. "See you around Hinata-chan!"

Hinata went ahead and fainted there, just to be caught by her cousin, who scoffed at her unconscious form.

"I still think she's sick," Naruto noted. "Maybe take her to the doctor."

Neji sweatdropped. "I assure you, Hinata-sama is not sick."

Naruto nodded agreeably. "Alright, if you say so." He turned and followed Kakashi and Sasuke, who had continued walking away. "Hey, wait up guys!"

"Keep up!" Sasuke shouted back.

Naruto pouted, And darted after them, continuing to chatter excitedly. "Kakashi-nii, can you believe they gave us an assignment to look for some plant on the training grounds?"

Kakashi froze, and looked at him. This could be very helpful. "What plant?"

Naruto squinted, frowning. "Uhh, it's green and leafy, and has these pretty blue flowers."

Kakashi thought about it for a bit, then nodded. "I know where to find a large patch of that, right outside the walls. I'm sure your brothers won't mind if we go on a short jaunt outside the village."

Naruto lit up, and Sasuke looked mildly interested. "Really?" Naruto shouted. "You're the best Kakashi-nii!"

Kakashi eye smiled, "of course I am."

Sasuke shook his head, adjusting his backpack. "Let's just go get it over with."

**(A/N) I have no idea it there's actually a plant like that, so we'll go with it. If there is a plant that's used for healing, and probably found in the forests around Konoha, please let me know via reviews, and I will change the description of the plant. **


	10. Chapter 10

Naruto, Sasuke, Kyu, Kurama, and Kakashi all walked towards the front gate, with the intention of walking out of the city to find a plant for homework.

"Hey, where are you going Kakashi? You don't have a mission, at least, not last I checked," one of the gate guards asked.

Kakashi eye smiled at them. "I'm subbing for Shisui and Itachi and helping these two do their homework. There's a large field full of this plant they need right outside of the wall, and that would be easier than trying to find it around the training grounds."

The gate guard who'd spoken nodded agreeably. "Alright, but sign out, alright?"

Kakashi nodded agreeably, and crossed to the sign out area, signing his name, party names, and reason for leaving. The sign out only applied to civilians, and ninja not leaving on a registered mission.

Kakashi finished, and herded the two five-year-olds and two shadow clones outside of Konoha.

He led them a little ways away, to a field full of the plant the boys were looking for. Now he just had to distract the boys for a few hours. Shouldn't be too hard, right? Hm, there was that one game Rin had used to distract him and Obito that one time Sensei was late, what was it called, something with a cat? Or was it a cradle? Never mind, he remembered it had occupied him and Obito until Sensei arrived, a good hour and a half late, even later than Obito. Now to see if he could remember how to do it…

Kakashi pulled out a random long piece of yarn, one he wasn't entirely sure why he had, and tied the ends together. He looped it around his wrists a few times, Naruto and Sasuke watching him curiously, Kurama and Kyu contemplative.

"Is that's cat's cradle?" Kurama asked first, nosing the string woven around Kakashi's fingers and wrists.

Kakashi nodded. So it was both cat and cradle. Huh, well, now he was wondering why a fox knew what it was…

Kyu poked at it, inserting his fingers into the woven string, and doing the correct movements to transfer it to his fingers. "I am assuming you are going to show it to the boys? You realize you cannot teach it without a second person, right?"

"I can make shadow clones," Kakashi dismissed.

Kyu watched him, unimpressed.

Kakashi shrugged, taking the string from him, the string woven in a different pattern around his fingers.

"What're you doing?" Naruto asked, peering over Kyu's shoulder.

"Playing cat's cradle, would you like to try?" Kakashi replied, eye smiling at him.

Naruto frowned thoughtfully. "If you help me and Sasuke finished our homework I'll play with you."

Kakashi sighed. "Alright, we can do that instead."

Shisui and Itachi found them like that an hour and a half later, both dripping wet, as they had done a quick dip in the river to get rid of the blood.

Kakashi looked up from where he was lying on the ground, Naruto, and Sasuke using his back as a table.

"Shisui-nii!" Naruto shouted, launching himself at Shisui.

Shisui caught him and held Naruto away from himself. "Careful there kit, I'm all wet. Fell in a river."

Sasuke didn't look impressed. "Both of you fell in a river?"

Shisui nodded solemnly. "The root tripped both of us."

Now all five people in the clearing were staring at him, unimpressed. Well, four humans and a fox. Itachi was just standing there, being no help at all.

Shisui pouted. "Can't you just believe me?"

"Nii-san's not clumsy," Sasuke replied, deadpan.

"He has a point," Kurama said, smirking at them.

Shisui stuck his tongue out at the fox. "Come on, we're leaving."

"Leaving where?" Naruto asked confusion and worry warring on his face.

"Outside of Konoha," Itachi said gently. "We're finding a better place for you to grow up."

Sasuke sat down in shock, and the closest thing to sit down on just so happened to be Kakashi, who let out a grunt as the five-year-old sat down on him heavily. "What about Mom and Dad?"

Kurama sighed, jumping into Sasuke's lap and settling down. "They're dead, kit. We can't explain now, we have to leave.

Sasuke sat there, stunned for a moment, then tears began to well up in his eyes. "Dead? Why?"

Itachi walked over and picked up his little brother, Kurama jumping onto his head. "We can't explain now. We need to go. We'll explain as soon as we reach the place we're going, alright?"

Kakashi, the weight on his back removed, stood up. He bit his thumb, summoning two of his dogs. "Bull, can you carry Sasuke for the time being? Pakkun, can you obscure our passage?"

"Naruto," Kurama said, hopping down to land in front of the kid. "Do you think you can handle two tails?"

Naruto looked hesitant for a moment, but nodded, a determined face taking over. "Yes. I can."

"It may hurt," Kurama cautioned.

Naruto swallowed, and make the ram sign, the one Shisui had said was used to channel chakra. A red stream of chakra came from his stomach, pouring into Kurama. Kurama grew to about the size of Bull, so his shoulder was comfortably above Naruto's head. To be fair, he was a pretty short five-year-old.

Naruto blinked open his eyes and looked at the now two-tailed Kurama. "It worked! And it didn't really hurt, more like, tickled a bit!"

Kurama nodded, folding his front legs so Naruto could clamber up. "I'll be carrying you, kit. We'll move faster that way."

Naruto smiled weakly, perhaps remembering why they why needed to move so quickly. He quickly clambered up, wrapping his arms and legs around Kurama best he could.

They moved quickly, keeping to the trees in order to move quicker. They had to get further away from Konoha. Hiruzen had promised to not send out hunter-nin for a while, but it wouldn't be forever, and they had to get distance. With any luck, they wouldn't have to go through Ame looking for the Akatsuki, and the Akatsuki would instead find them. They were three S-ranked missing-nin, after all. None of them had drawn the line through their headband yet, figuring they could do it after they crossed the border sometime in the next hour. They'd go over the border, then go as far as they could before resting for the night.

"Shisui-nii," Naruto asked suddenly. "Aren't there people who chase people who run away?"

Shisui sighed, moving up to branch hop next to Kurama. "Yes there are, but think about it like this, the Hokage knows what we're doing, and why we're doing it, so he's going to stall them, and not send them out till next week. We have some important people to find before that time runs out."

"Importitant people?" Naruto asked, tilting his head.

"Important," Shisui corrected. "They're called the Akatsuki, and they're based in Ame as far as we know."

Naruto scrunched up his nose. "Rain?"

"Rain," Shisui agreed.

"Wet," Naruto decided, burying his face in Kurama's fur.

"Wet," Shisui agreed again, before falling back into his original position.

They made it over the border with an hour or so before dusk.

They stopped for the night an hour later, most of the way to Ame. They only had a few hours to go before they reached Ame, but it wouldn't do to have the boys passing out and falling off their respective rides. Plus, while Kakashi was rested, Shisui and Itachi, having had to kill an entire freaking clan of shinobi, were much more tired. When they stopped, both were barely on their feet, and that was just pure determination.

"I'll keep watch," Kyu said before anyone else could say anything. "I slept in the seal during the academy, I'll be fine. And I can dispel and sleep while you're moving tomorrow if need be."

The three jounin just nodded, knowing the intelligence in that. Kyu was a sturdy shadow clone, and Kurama would most likely be up and around, keeping watch as well.

Kurama laid down to allow Naruto off his back, Itachi managed to pick his brother off of Bull's back. The large dog dispelled with a nod to Kakashi.

Kyu immediately nicked the camping supplies scroll from Shisui, and opened it. He quickly unsealed the tents, and Itachi immediately began to set them up, settling his almost catatonic brother in one of them as soon as he had it set up. Kakashi stole the scroll from Kyu, unsealing the cooking supplies, setting them up, and heading off with a kunai in hand.

Once the boys were peacefully sleeping, the three jounin gathered around the dying campfire for one last thing they had to do.

Shisui stared at his headband, situated on the ground. "I thought I'd never do this."

Itachi grunted in agreement.

Kakashi sighed at his headband. "It's for the best. If it's anything, I think Kushina-nee would be proud of us, of all things."

The two Uchiha hummed in agreement.

Kakashi took his kunai to his headband first, drawing a rather sloppy horizontal line through the Konoha symbol. He tied it back on his forehead. "To keeping the boys safe."

Shisui drew a much neater line through his headband, and tied it on as well. "To keeping the boys safe.

Itachi sighed, drawing a very nearly perfect line through the Konoha symbol. "To keeping them safe."


	11. Chapter 11

**(A/N) Horribly sorry about the missing of the Tuesday update last time, I had it ready, and it was in , it just never went into the story somehow. Again, really really sorry, but both went up on Saturday, so no harm done, right? Princess Hinashi, *smirks* very bold of you to assume this is the end. Or even close, actually.**

They reached the Ame border a few days later, crossing without incident. A few miles in, they were stopped by a pair of people, one that was blue and had very sharky-like features, and the other that was hunched over.

"Why are you here?" The blue one asked, placing his hand on his bandaged sword.

"We wish to join the Akatsuki," Itachi said, eyes narrowed dangerously as he stepped in front of Sasuke and Naruto.

"You have children with you," the other one said, a female with blue hair.

"We do," Shisui agreed. "Is that a problem?"

"And you have them here why? They don't look like ninja."

"We're ninja in training!" Naruto said, pumping his fist.

Kurama sighed. "Kit, stop talking, you aren't helping."

Naruto pouted, but fell silent, flopping against Kurama's back.

"They are children," the blue one reiterated, narrowing his eyes.

"Is that a problem?" Kakashi asked, narrowing his visible eye.

"We shall talk with Leader-sama. Do not go anywhere," the other one said, turning away from them.

Shisui nodded, turning to Sasuke and Naruto. "Alright, let's set up camp for now, and give Kurama and Bull a chance to rest."

Itachi sighed, but handed the camping scrolls out.

They didn't have to wait long, after a couple of hours a rain started up, then it stopped, and an orange haired person with the fabled Rinnegan came to meet them.

"You wish to join the Akatsuki?" He asked.

Shisui jumped up, and nodded. "Yes."

"You have a jinchuuriki with you."

"We do, it was rumored you were looking for them, but meant them no harm," Itachi said levely.

The orange haired man inclined his head. "You may refer to me as Leader-sama."

Kakashi tilted his head, so much like the dogs he summoned. "I'm assuming we're hired?"

Leader nodded. "You will be paired off, and begin missions tomorrow."

Shisui glanced at Naruto and Sasuke, who's fallen asleep leaning against Kurama, who was also asleep. "And who will watch them? They're just five years old, they need supervision."

"If you so wish, you may watch them instead," Leader said, nodding to Shisui.

Shisui nodded, visibly relieved.

"Congratulations," Kakashi muttered to Shisui. "You're now the de facto babysitter."

"Is it really all that bad?" Shisui shot back.

Kakashi just snorted, and turned to pack up.

Leader eyed him, but didn't comment.

Shisui pouted at Kakashi's back for a moment, then packed up himself, packing his own tent up, then getting to work on Naruto's while Itachi handled Sasuke's.

Leader watched them, silent and unmoving as they finished their packing up and woke up Naruto and Sasuke, who seemed quite fascinated by Leader.

Naruto and Sasuke alike gaped at the city, the sky, and just everything in general. They'd never seen so much rain. It had been drizzling the entire time they were approaching the city, which Shisui had told them was called Amegakure, or the Village Hidden by Rain.

"Does it always rain here?" Naruto asked, catching one of the rain drops on his tongue.

"Yes," Leader said shortly, leading them inside of the base.

"It's called the Village Hidden by Rain for a reason, kit," Kurama pointed out.

"Woah, so many rooms!" Naruto marveled.

"It is a lot of rooms," Sasuke agreed. "Are there people in all of them?"

Leader shook his head. "Those with plaques have people in them now, or will have people in them in the future. Select a room without a plaque. Except the nine-tails's container. He will be in the room labeled 'nine'."

Shisui nodded, glancing to Kakashi and Itachi. "Is there anything else?"

"There is no specified meal time. Cook your own food, get your own groceries, but do not be surprised if they get used," Leader listed off. "Be in the meeting room at 9:00 tomorrow morning with the jinchuuriki."

Naruto found the room with the kanji for 'nine' on a plaque, and went in, followed by Kurama in his one tailed state.

"Wow! It's so big!" Naruto exclaimed, followed by a similar statement from Sasuke, who picked the room next to him. Itachi and Shisui selected rooms across from their respective little brothers, and Kakashi picked the one next to Itachi's.

"I guess we should probably tell you why we had to go missing-nin," Itachi began when they were all seated at a table in the mess hall. Well, except for Kakashi, who'd wandered off somewhere.

Sasuke nodded rapidly. "Yes, it's about time!"

Shisui sighed heavily. "For one thing, Kakashi was not involved in most of this. We just told him about us going missing-nin, and he insisted on joining us. He was a student of your father, Naruto."

Itachi picked up the tale. "The Uchiha clan was planning a coup. They refused to respond to negotiations, and therefore it was you, Sasuke, being left alive while the rest of the clan was killed, or a civil war in Konoha, which would lead to another Shinobi World War."

"Danzo ordered us to, and gave us the ultimatum. We took the side with less bloodshed. As bloody as the newly named Uchiha Massacre was, it would've had nothing on a civil war with the Leaf, followed by a Shinobi World War," Shisui said, stirring his cereal.

Sasuke got up from his seat, moving towards Itachi. Itachi tensed slightly, but relaxed when Sasuke attached himself to Itachi's side. "Nii-san, for the record, I think you were right."

Kurama growled slightly in agreement. "On the plus side, Shisui is not known as a participant of the Uchiha massacre, neither is Kakashi. As far as anyone knows, Itachi stole Sasuke and Naruto from Konoha, and Kakashi and Shisui went rouge to find them, or something else ridiculous like that. Sarutobi confirmed that Shisui, Kakashi, and you two will be welcome back in Konoha, should you so choose."

"We were planning on taking you back to Konoha for a bit when it would be time for you to become genin if you hadn't left," Shisui said. "We figured you might want to have headbands to actually slash."

"I wouldn't be welcome in Konoha, but if you had any out of village missions, I would be able to see you then," Itachi said, patting his brother's head, only slightly awkwardly.

Naruto frowned slightly. "Would we be placed with other jounin-sensei? And what about teammates?"

Shisui shrugged. "Up to the Hokage. We did hint that one of us would like to be your sensei. And may have suggested potential teammates."

Itachi shook his head. "Kakashi did want to teach you, Naruto, but your brother may take you instead. Kakashi will most likely insist on teaching you instead, Sasuke."

Loud crashes and other rather worrying noises came from about where the front of the building.

Shisui heaved a sigh and stood up. "I may want to go check that out. Naruto, Sasuke, you two stay here and finish eating, I promise to drag anyone interesting back here for you to meet."

That seemed to mollify the slightly irritated kids. Sasuke detached from his brother and hopped back into his seat. "You'd better Cousin Shisui."

Shisui sweatdropped, and walked off towards the sounds.

Now that he was getting closer, he was beginning to catch snippets of the conversation.

"If you blow that thing up, I will personally take you back to Iwa, boy!" A cranky voice snapped.

"Well, what am I supposed to do with it?" A much younger voice snapped right back.

"Recycle it! Use it again!" The cranky one replied waspishly.

"Don't fight," a younger voice then either of the previous ones said timidly. "That's bad."

Shisui rounded a corner, almost shocked to find a blond kid, perhaps nine years old, arguing with a redheaded teenager Shisui recognized as Sasori of the Red Sand. Even if he really should be in his thirties or so. A second redhead, this one much younger, perhaps five, around Naruto and Sasuke's age, hid behind Sasori, and clutched tightly to his pants.

"Hello!" Shisui chirped, trying to defuse the situation.

Everyone in the hallway turned to face him, and Shisui smiled disarmingly.

"Hello," the smaller redhead offered quietly.

"Who are you?" Sasori snapped waspishly.

"I'm new, Shisui Uchiha. Or Shunshin no Shisui."

Sasori grunted. "Sasori of the Red Sand. The blond nine-year-old idiot is Deidara Bo, and the kid is Gaara. Youngest child of the current Kazekage and jinchuuriki to the one-tails."

The kid now identified as Gaara waved timidly, having moved behind Sasori again. Deidara waved at him as well, and accompanied it with a blinding smile.

"Hello Gaara, Deidara. Would you like to meet my brother and my cousins? My brother is the nine-tails container."

Deidara grinned. "Sure! Better than being stuck with this stick in the mud! He doesn't understand true art!"

Sasori frowned at the blond.

Gaara glanced up as Sasori, hesitation clear in his eyes. Sasori sighed and gestured to Shisui. "Just go, meet a fellow jinchuuriki. Just don't kill anything."

Shisui raised an eyebrow, sensing a story there. Ultimately, the redhead hesitantly came over, and Shisui offered his hand. The kid took it, and allowed Shisui to lead him down the hall, Deidara following close behind, chattering on about how art was an explosion.

"Art is fire," Shisui mused. "Explosions work too though, I suppose."

"Shisui-nii, who's this?" Naruto asked, bounding over.

"Gaara, meet Naruto Uzumaki," Shisui said with a wide grin.

**(A/N) Isn't baby Gaara just the cutest?! I will be updating this Saturday, but not after that until December. Oh, Saturday is my birthday! We can celebrate together by reading an update!**


	12. Chapter 12

**(A/N) TBNRkurama: I KNOWWW! SO CUTE! Right, so this is the last update until December, as I am doing Nanowrimo. I've explained it plenty on my other stories. This chapter will be a series of time skips, fetching other jinchuuriki and basically encompassing a lot of their time with the Akatsuki. Hidan, Kakuzu, and Orochimaru are part of the organization, yes, but they deal with the messy bits, mostly killing the older jinchuuriki to make way for child ones. Except Bee and Nii, who are different, and will be left alive cause I like them.**

"Nice to meet you!" Naruto chirped, basically catapulting himself off of his seat to land in front of Gaara, who hid behind Shisui's leg.

"He's rather shy," Shisui explained to his little brother.

"Oooh," Naruto said, nodded. He stuck out his hand anyway. "Nice to meet you," he tried again, quieter this time.

Gaara shook the offered hand quickly, then retreated behind Shisui again.

Kurama jumped down from the table, nosing Gaara's leg. "Hey, this is the container for Shukaku. The one-tails, by the way."

Gaara blinked at the talking fox. "Shukaku?"

Kurama bobbed his head. "One of my brothers. I would assume he controls your sand? Although, I don't see any sand."

"Sasori-san insisted I leave it behind," Gaara all but whispered.

Kurama nodded. "Wise. My brother can be touchy when it comes to his kits. Can you contact him?"

Gaara shrugged. "I only know of Mother."

Kurama's face went blank for a moment, then he sighed. "Tell your mother we're going to have a talk later, and if she behaves, we'll find some sand for you."

Gaara nodded, and Shisui plopped down in the seat he'd been in earlier. "Oh, and that's Deidara. He's from Iwa." Shisui waved his hand in the nine-year-old's direction.

"Art is an explosion!" Deidara said, making an explosion noise.

Naruto and Sasuke 'ooo'ed and nodded enthusiastically.

"How do you blow stuff up?" Itachi asked curiously.

"I have the Explosion release bloodline," Deidara explained. "I put my chakra into my clay, then blow it up, yeah."

Itachi nodded. "If you're going to practice, do it outside."

Shisui laughed. "Yeah, don't want to bring this entire place down on our heads!"

"That would be ill advised," Kurama agreed, sniffing Deidara's leg too. "Why are you here?"

Deidara shrugged. "Sasori muttered something about me joining the Akatsuki when I'm a bit older, un."

Itachi nodded. "So, we're keeping you until then?"

Deidara shrugged. "I guess, not much else for me to do. The old man doesn't appreciate my art, un!"

"Old man?" Naruto asked. "Hey, that's what I call my old man!"

"Who's your old man?" Deidara asked, narrowing his eyes at the much shorter blonde.

"The Hokage! That means mine's way cooler than yours!"

"Well, mine's the Tsuchikage!" Deidara shot back. "Mine's cooler!"

Shisui sighed. "Boys, the Hokage and the Tsuchikage are equally cool, and equally old. You can stop arguing now, especially you, Deidara, as you just said your old man doesn't understand your art."

Itachi sighed. "I have a feeling you two are going to get along like explosives on fire."

Shisui smiled innocently. "What makes you say that?"

Itachi sighed again, and shook his head at his cousin. "You're supposed to be older then me."

"And your point is?" Shisui asked.

Itachi just shook his head again.

Sasuke held out his hand to Gaara. "My name's Sasuke, wanna go find your room?"

Gaara nodded hesitantly, taking the hand and following Sasuke out of the dining room. Itachi watched them go, and decided they'd be fine. He was needed here. So nothing was turned into 'art'.

* * *

They found the seven-tails next, Itachi and Kakashi brought her back, and Naruto, Gaara, and Sasuke met her at the front gate.

"Hihihihihi!" Naruto said, bouncing up and down.

Fuu, the seven-tails jinchuuriki imitated him, bouncing up and down with excitement. "Will you be my friends!?"

Naruto's grin only widened. "Of course!"

Shisui, who'd accompanied the now six-year-olds, placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Down, kit."

Naruto pouted. "I'm not a kit!"

"Are too!" Kakashi said, ruffling Naruto's hair. "Naruto, Gaara, why don't you two let Kurama and Shukaku out?"

Naruto perked up, placing his hands in the cross sign, and summoning both Kyu and Kurama. He pouted. "I thought I had that down!"

Kyu shrugged. "Doesn't matter, I would've had to meet her at some point."

Fuu blinked, eyes wide. "You can make a friend whenever you want?"

Naruto blinked at her, then at Kyu. "Well, Kyu was an accident, I accidentally made a shadow clone with both Kurama and my chakras."

Fuu marched right up to Kyu and stuck out her hand. "My name's Fuu! What's yours?"

Kyu looked amused. "As Naruto has said, my name is Kyu."

Fuu wrinkled her nose. "Nine? Your name is nine?"

Kurama smirked. "And Naruto's name is fishcake, your point?"

"It's maelstrom!" Naruto squawked.

Fuu giggled.

Gaara had created a little sand clone for Shukaku, and the tanuki now nosed Fuu's leg. "Me too!" He screeched.

Fuu grinned, and crouched down to pet him. "You feel like sand, Mr. Shukaku."

"I am sand!" The tanuki deadpanned.

Shisui snickered. "Alright, back to the base, we don't want Sasuke to catch a cold."

"Why am I always the one going to catch a cold?" Sasuke complained, sniffing.

"Imouto, you're the only one that can," Itachi pointed out.

Sasuke puffed out a cheek in a pout. "Nii-san, you can catch a cold too."

Itachi ruffled his hair. "I'm less likely to, I have a stronger immune system than you."

Naruto, who'd been chatting equally to Gaara and Fuu, suddenly grabbed both of them by their hands, and started dragging them off. Gaara less willing then Fuu, but he'd gotten used to being dragged everywhere by an over enthusiastic Naruto.

* * *

Sasori was approached by Gaara a few days after Fuu arrived. "Can you teach me to do what you do?"

Sasori blinked at the smaller redhead. "My kind of puppetry is not for the faint of heart."

Gaara nodded. "I know, you use human corpses as puppets. I still wanna learn!"

Sasori sighed, and pulled out a small practice puppet. "I'll consider it if you can be shown how to create chakra strings, then learn to move this puppet on your own before I come back from my next mission."

Gaara learned to control the puppet two days after he got it, before Sasori even left on his mission. Sasori gave him a bigger puppet with the same instructions. Just like that, Sasori had someone to pass his techniques on to.

* * *

"Shisui," Itachi said, a long suffering expression on his face.

"Yes?" Shisui asked innocently.

"You have nail polish on your headband."

Shisui nodded. For some reason the Akatsuki all had painted nails. Shisui went with neon (and glow in the dark, but Itachi didn't need to know that) yellow. Gaara had picked a pale brown, about the color of his sand, Naruto switched Konon for the orange, then made it neon and glow in the dark, Fuu had neon glow in the dark green, Sasuke picked dark red, Itachi had a dark purplish color, and Kakashi picked silver. "I do."

Gaara looked up from where he was working with Sasori on a puppet. "Naruto told him to."

Itachi sighed. "And of course he went along with it."

Shisui just smiled innocently.

* * *

Itachi sighed into the darkness. "Shisui."

"Yes?" Shisui asked quietly, not bothering to look away from their quarry.

"Your headband is glowing."

"So are my nails. Your point?"

Itachi facepalmed quietly. "Shisui, we are on a stealth mission."

"So why are you having a problem? He hasn't seen us."

Itachi sighed again, long-sufferingly. "This is why you're the babysitter."

"Older brother," Shisui corrected cheerfully.

**(A/N) *Snickers* Just seems so much like them, doesn't it? Naruto'll do the same thing to his headband when he gets one. Do you want another chapter of little snap shots of their time with the Akatsuki? Or for me to just go ahead and go back to Konoha? And yes, I'm making Gaara a Puppeteer. I do think that it's really the most sensible choice, and it comes from his home village too. My figuring is that the biggest weakness of puppeteers is their lack of self defense. Gaara has the so called ultimate defense. An offense like a puppet, would work in tandem with his sand to create a truly fearsome opponent. I could rant about this for ages, but I have a birthday to celebrate! See you in December!**


	13. Chapter 13

**(A/N) I would like to think that you missed me. Did you? TBNkurama: Uh, just saying Yes does not help in the slightest, but thanks for the enthusiasm. These are mostly drabbles, short little snippets. **

"You want to do what?" Shisui asked, tilting his head slightly.

"Sasori-sensei said I had to ask permission to begin preparing a puppet body for me to transfer into when I am old enough."

Shisui sighed. "And he thinks he can transfer the tailed beast safely?"

Gaara nodded enthusiastically.

Shisui sighed again. "Fine, when you're old enough you can do it."

Gaara cheered quietly, sand swirling around him in entrancing patterns. He turned and ran off, presumably to start building the puppet with Sasori.

How that kid had managed to soften the heart of the famed Akasuna no Sasori, Shisui didn't know. But it was adorable.

* * *

**(A/N) It was brought to my attention that I forgot to tell you why the Akatsuki are collecting the biju this time. This is a little while after they arrived at the base. **

Almost the entire Akatsuki was there, except Orochimaru, who was busy, and Hidan who was not allowed to tune in. Mostly for fear of the children overhearing his foul mouth.

"We're here to announce three new members, and update our position on collecting the Biju," Pain said, standing solemnly at the head of the table. "Itachi Uchiha, Shisui Uchiha, and Kakashi Hatake brought Sasuke Uchiha and the Nine-tails jinchuuriki in. Sasori brought in potential member Deidara and the One-tails jinchuuriki." Pain nodded to each member as he spoke their names. Deidara was watching the kids in another room.

"So, uh, why exactly are we collecting the Jinchuuriki?" Shisui wondered.

"To give them a proper home and childhood," Sasori replied smoothly. "They tend to go missing ninja anyway, we're just speeding up the process. And giving them a nice home while we're at it."

Kakashi hummed. "No plans of world domination?"

"We had plans of world peace," Pain mused. "They were crushed pretty quickly, so we settled for peace for Ame and happiness for the Jinchuuriki."

"Maybe with all of the Jinchuuriki in Ame, the bigger villages will listen to us," Shisui offered. "Then we can make peace!"

Pain nodded. "We will have to wait and see. In the meantime, Kakashi, Itachi, the seven-tails is in Taki, we don't know who it is though, So reconnaissance will be needed before you can fetch them."

"Deidara says that Iwa's biju are being transferred into children, to let them hide easier," Sasori said.

Pain turned to Itachi. "If you wouldn't mind allowing Sasuke to accompany Sasori on that mission. It would be low risk, especially for Sasuke, as it would mostly consist of playing with other children and seeing if any two are ostracized. We'll send Shisui with one or two of the Jinchuuriki, and they'll do the actual fetching of the Jinchuuriki."

Sasori raised his hand.

"Yes Sasori?"

"Deidara mentioned he'd be too old for the transfer when it happened, that implies it'll happen after he's 16, which is when you can no longer place a biju in someone," Sasori said. "That means it will be done when the Jinchuuriki we have are around 12. We have plenty of time."

Pain frowned. "Kakuzu, you, Hidan, and Orochimaru will take turns harassing the Iwa Jinchuuriki. Don't kill or severely main, just harass. Make it seem like they aren't safe and try and get that table moved up. Sasori, you will be looking for Ukatato in the meantime. He is not affiliated with any village right now, so we'll try and get him on our side."

Sasori nodded.

"You have your orders. I will call you again if anything changes."

* * *

**(Before Fuu, about two years in. Fuu comes about a month later)**

Naruto was walking around Ame, saying hello to people, and just generally being an adorable 7-year-old kid. He glanced over, seeing Sasori coming in with a strange man. He ran over. "Sasori-nii! Who's that guy?"

"This is Ukatato. He has number six."

"**Kit, let me out, I wanna say hello," **Kurama insisted.

Naruto dutifully made the hand sign, channeling a bit of chakra to make a shadow clone of Kurama.

"Hello, Saiken," Kurama said, curling around Naruto's feet. "I see you finally got one of your jinchuuriki to go missing ninja."

Ukatato blinked, pulling a thingy out of his belt and blowing a few bubbles, which floated down, forming a tiny slug.

"I see you finally found a kit to 'parent', Kurama," the slug snapped.

"I have multiple kits," Kurama said happily. "This one's just my jinchuuriki."

Everyone stared at the two mini biju.

"Do you hate each other?" Naruto asked, blinking innocently.

The biju exchanged glances and shook their heads. "No, we don't, it's just playful teasing between siblings," Kurama explained.

Naruto thought about that for a bit. "Like how Shisui-nii doesn't like Hidan?"

"Uh, no, that's very different. They do hate each other. Well, Hidan doesn't care, but Shisui certainly doesn't like Hidan."

"Is that why Shisui-nii doesn't let us meet him?" Naruto asked, all innocence and sunshine.

"Shisui doesn't let you meet him because he has a foul mouth," Sasori said blandly.

Naruto looked confused.

Kurama nudged his jinchuuriki. "Come on, let's go show Ukatato his room, shall we?"

* * *

"Shisui!" Gaara shouted, running around the house, waving a scroll in the air. The puppet inside was much bigger than his eight-year-old frame, and Sasori had let him seal it away.

Shisui appeared around a corner, and Gaara crashed into him, sending both of them to the ground.

"Ow, jeez kid, what was so important you had to crash into me for it?" Shisui grunted, gently pushing Gaara off of him.

"I finished my first battle puppet!" Gaara happily waved it in the air.

"Oh? Why don't we go to a sparring room, and you can show me?" Shisui suggested.

It truly was a very impressive puppet, Shisui would guess it had been a Yamanaka, based on the long pale blond hair and slim frame, but he could always be wrong. The puppet was dressed simply, in a sandy brown robe that would permit movement, and weapon use.

Gaara had the puppet go through a few kata, displaying the weapons on the puppet. The others collected, staring at the interesting puppet. "My first puppet, Fubuki Yamanaka."

* * *

They took turns trying to cook for a while, with varying results. With nine-year-old children, that was to be expected.

"Naruto," Shisui began, staring at the attempt at food. "You're not cooking again."

Naruto drooped. "Aww, why not?"

Shisui gave him a deadpan look and poked at the attempt at whatever he'd been trying to cook. "When it ends up the consistency of jello, when it's not supposed to be, you did not cook it right. And you cooked it so wrong it ended up an unidentifiable bunch of gloop."

Naruto pouted, and Shisui ended up making ramen to cheer him up after that fiasco.

* * *

Itachi tried next.

"It's not terrible," Kisame hedged.

"It's about the right consistency," Shisui tried.

"It's got less spice then you do emotion," Naruto said bluntly. "You're joining me in not cooking."

Itachi looked almost sad, but got over it fairly quickly.

* * *

"You have officially joined the roster of cooking," Shisui told Gaara. "But uh, maybe pick slightly less clashing and powerful tastes next time."

Gaara took that gamely, Shukaku saw it as an insult and tried attacking Shisui's ankles, which failed because he was wearing thick boots. This was not the first time Shukaku had tried to attack ankles, which was all he could reach, so they all wore thick boots.

* * *

Kakashi couldn't cook very well, but he could manage. Fuu was enthusiastic, but not the greatest cook. Kyu could cook, no one was precisely sure why, but he could. Deidara burnt everything. Kisame was good at fish, just about nothing else. Konan was fairly good at cooking, and Shisui had designated himself as the permanent cook, something everyone was happy with, and the less said about Sasuke's cooking, the better.

"Are you sure that's not an eldritch horror?" Shisui asked, half-hidden behind Itachi, who was as unperturbed as usual.

Sasuke pouted at him. "It's fried rice!"

Shisui gave the monstrosity a dubious look, and shook his head. "Sorry Sasuke, that is not fried rice. At least, not anymore."

Sasuke pouted at him, but Shisui pacified him with a tomato.

**(A/N) Aren't they cute? Poor Sasuke and his eldritch horror level of cooking skills. On the plus side, I can now spell eldritch without spell check! So, I have two stories, but only one open update day. Would you prefer to see Want the Boy, Beat him Up, a story where Shino stops the bullies instead of Ino, and when Sakura tells her parents, they give her an anti-fangirl talk, or Why Suna Hates Team Seven, a story where Sakura has magnet release, Sasuke's obsessed with Madara, and Naruto's a puppeteer. I, personally can't decide, so I'm asking you! If I could get help deciding here, that would help. A lot. The other one would be posted eventually, but after one of the other stories is finished. You have until Friday! **

**Uzumaki and Uchiha's spot just opened up as well, but it has two different options. The two options for UU's spot are Becoming a Missing-Nin with Your Cousin's Little Brother, where Itachi's eye is stolen by Danzo, and he dies at that cliff, and Shisui massacres the clan under orders, and then takes Sasuke and goes missing ninja, and Family Means Nobody Gets Left Behind (name the reference and be logged in so I can PM you, and you'll get a sneak peek!) a story where Mito(Hashirama's wife) activates a seal and accidentally ends up in the Forest of Death with a five-year-old Naruto. Again, the option not picked will still be posted, just at a later date. ****Vote in the comments. You have four weeks from yesterday to decide before I tally up the final vote and post. The update during that period is a cute one-shot. I have polls for both of these up on my profile. **

**Just one more thing, congrats all you who read to the end, by the way, so, with my sheer lack of ability to have all of my story ideas updating with the current schedule, you have two options. I'm fine with both, so it really depends on what you lot would prefer. I can either continue like this, and just keep letting you pick what story you want to see each time a story finishes, or I can move to a three-week rotating update schedule. Your choice, I'll probably remind you of this each chapter until there's a definite answer. Maybe I'll do a poll, we'll see.**


	14. Chapter 14

**(A/N) Heyo! So, I'm wondering if you want to see anything in particular for the Christmas one-shot, cause I can do it in one of my story universes. Probably wouldn't be canon, but still. Also, *squeals* over 200 follower people, and that's like, a lot. On another hand, you guys picked Why Suna Hates Team 7 pretty much unanimously, so, that was up yesterday. I did not know you could only have one poll up on your profile, so hehe, the three-week rotation question is up now. That one ends on December 28th, the Saturday after Christmas, and if it is the more favored option, I'll implement the changes for the new year. **

Understandably, the gate guards were very surprised when Shunshin no Shisui and Sharingan no Kakashi strolled up to the gate surrounded by four kids and asked to see the Hokage. They let them in any way and escorted them to the Hokage's office.

"Ah, Shisui, Kakashi, I was wondering when I'd see you two," the Hokage said, smiling. "I see you have a couple of extra children."

Shisui chuckled, a bit nervously. "Well, we might have picked up a couple of strays."

"My name's Fuu!" Fuu chirped, the small Chomei perched on her head and nestled in her hair.

"My name is Gaara," Gaara said. Shukaku was out as well, but he was busy arguing with Kurama from his spot on Kakashi's head. Kurama was on Shisui's head again.

Sarutobi picked up a piece of paper. "And why are you here?"

"Oh we're here so we can officially become Mis-" Fuu started but became muffled as Shisui slapped a hand over her mouth.

"Remember what I've told you," he scolded gently.

"We're here to become proper ninja!" Naruto said loudly, grinning widely.

Sarutobi raised an eyebrow. "Alright, the genin exam is today, why don't you three give this paper to Iruka Umino. He'll let you take the exam, and we'll get you sorted into teams. Shisui, Kakashi, stay here please."

The kids nodded and Naruto took the paper the Hokage offered. Shukaku and Kurama jumped down from their respective rides' heads, and ran out of the door alongside the teens.

Naruto and Sasuke led Fuu and Gaara through the streets of Konoha, heading towards the academy.

"Why are they glaring at us?" Gaara asked quietly, sand coming from his gourd to pool around his feet as they walked.

"They know my older brother killed the clan," Sasuke offered.

"They know I have Kurama," Naruto said, shrugging. "I'm used to it, I've been getting those looks since I can remember."

Fuu shuddered and moved closer to Gaara, his sand moving to pool around her feet as well. "It reminds me of the looks I always got in Taki."

"Hence why Itachi-nii and Kakashi-nii picked you up," Naruto whispered to her. "And why the Akatsuki is collecting the tailed beasts, or rather, their containers."

"Ah look, we're here," Sasuke said, stopping in front of the academy for a moment.

"Do you think we moved classrooms?" Naruto wondered, glancing at the paper in his hands.

"Probably, kit," Kurama said. "Would you keep one class in one classroom all of the years?"

Gaara shook his head. "Probably not. We can just ask the front desk people, right?"

"Oh, hey, look over there, d'ya think that's the class we need? I think I recognize a couple of them," Naruto said, pointing to a class that was watching a boy fight one of the teachers.

"Isn't that Kiba?" Sasuke asked, squinting at the figure.

"We could just move so they aren't backlit," Gaara said dryly. "Then you don't have to squint and hurt your eyes."

Fuu giggled.

Sasuke frowned at Gaara but led the way over to the class.

"Hello, who are you?" A brown-haired chuunin asked.

"Naruto Uzumaki," Naruto introduced himself, holding out the paper. "We're here to take the genin exams."

"I'm Iruka Umino," the chuunin said after he'd scanned the paper. He smiled at them. "We're doing the taijutsu segment now, we have the shurikenjutsu, written, and jutsu segments afterward. What are the rest of your names?"

"Sasuke Uchiha."

"Gaara, no last name."

"Fuu!"

"Fuu doesn't have a last name either," Sasuke added.

Iruka nodded, smiled firmly in place. "It's nice to meet you all. Are your pets trained?"

Shukaku squawked. "I am not a pet!"

Iruka blinked. "My bad, what are you then?"

"Summons, we're summons," Chomei said quickly, stopping whatever Shukaku was about to say."

"Ah, and who are your summoners?"

Kurama flicked his tail at Naruto. "He's mine."

Shukaku sighed, and flicked his tail at Gaara. "He's mine."

Chomei just nestled further into Fuu's hair. "This one's mine."

Iruka nodded, smiling. "Of course. I do request you do not participate in the Taijutsu section. Am I correct in assuming you all have ninja training?"

"We wouldn't be here if we didn't," Gaara pointed out.

Iruka nodded. "I suppose you are correct. Join the crowd, we're almost done with the students, then we can do you."

The teens nodded, and went to stand in the crowd.

Naruto blinked at the person fighting the other teacher. "Uh, Pakkun fights better than that and he's a dog."

A pink-haired girl turned to him and brandished her fist. "Don't say that about Kiba-kun!"

"Kiba Inuzuka," Sasuke muttered. "Wasn't he the one who challenged me for top dog spot on the first day of school?"

"Yeah," Kurama agreed.

"Didn't he lose that spar?" Naruto asked, tilting his head.

"Yeah," Sasuke agreed.

Kiba finished fighting the other teacher, being thrown out of the ring.

"Longest time yet," the silver-haired teacher said approvingly. "Oh, who are you?"

"They're new transfers, Mizuki," Iruka said, handing Mizuki the paper. He scanned it, then handed it back to Iruka.

"Alright, no problem. Who wants to go first?"

"I'll do it," Sasuke said, raising his hand. Out of the corner of his mouth, he hissed to Gaara, "get your sand in that gourd and hand it over to one of the others. No special sand blocks."

Gaara nodded, the sand that had been pooling around his and Fuu's feet flowed back into the gourd, a cork forming. He slung it off of his back, handing it to Fuu, who slung it across her own shoulders.

Sasuke nodded and got into the drawn ring. "So, what do I have to do?"

"Throw me out of the ring, which is nearly impossible, or last two minutes. Lasting longer increases your points," Mizuki instructed.

Sasuke traded glances with his friends. Mizuki was quite a bit smaller than Kisame, who was the one making them practice taijutsu most of the time. If they could throw Kisame, they could throw Mizuki. Kisame, of course, hadn't been going all out, and had said he'd been going high chuunin last they spared. Perks of being raised/trained by a bunch of S-class missing-nin. (Kakashi was definitely S-class after some training and some improving. And a couple more stolen jutsu.)

"Begin!" Iruka called.

Sasuke and Mizuki watched each other, both waiting for the other to make a move.

"You can make the first move, Sasuke!" Naruto cheered.

Sasuke sized up Mizuki, who was a good few inches taller than him. "Alright, might as well." He rushed forward, throwing a punch at Mizuki's stomach. Mizuki dodged neatly, and Sasuke's fist hit the ground, Sasuke placing his other hand down as well, using both legs to lash out at Mizuki. Mizuki, caught off guard by the odd tactic, got nicked on the side by one of Sasuke's feet. Sasuke rotated enough so he could backflip onto his feet and not be out of the circle, and backflipped onto his feet.

Mizuki made the first move this time, the two engaging in a deadly dance of punches, kicks, and blocks.

Mizuki landed a single hit to Sasuke's lower leg when he spun into a kick, and Sasuke scored two more hits on Mizuki due to odd moves and weird contortions.

After a couple of minutes, Sasuke stopped holding back quite so much, and in under a second, threw Mizuki bodily out of the ring.

Every just sort of gaped at him.

Sasuke shrugged. "What? He's nowhere as heavy as our normal taijutsu trainer. Or as fast. Or as used to my tricks."

"You have the weirdest taijutsu style I have ever seen." Kiba decided.

"People keep saying that," Sasuke muttered.

"Cause it's true," Kurama pointed out.

Sasuke frowned at the fox. "You helped me develop it, you don't get to say anything."

Now everyone was really looking at him weird.

"Have none of you heard that summons have taijutsu styles?" Naruto asked rhetorically. "I know for a fact that the toads do, Jiraya uses it."

More gaping expressions.

**(A/N) Like academy students would know that. Still, it is fairly reasonable that even now, Sasuke, Naruto, Gaara, and Fuu could fairly easily defeat a Chuunin, especially one like Mizuki, who's been a teacher for a good while. After all, Kakashi was a freaking jounin at their age. **


	15. Chapter 15

**(A/N) Hello! Please go see my profile and the poll there, I need people to actually vote on it. **

"Uhm, well, Naruto, why don't you go next," Iruka said, marking something down on a clipboard.

Needless to say, the other three went very much like Sasuke's did, although Mizuki cracked a rib and let Iruka handle Gaara and Fuu. They took more care to gently throw Iruka onto nearby grass. Didn't need both of their teachers in the hospital. That would be bad.

Again, Iruka let the actual class go first, throwing kunai and shuriken into stationary targets.

Kurama wrinkled his nose. "Those kids'll die with that kind of accuracy."

"We haven't used stationary targets since we were six," Gaara muttered, matching Kurama's expression.

"I have," Sasuke admitted. "During the sleight of hand lessons."

"That's different, that's sleight of hand, not straight throwing," Kurama pointed out.

"And all of us have done that," Naruto added.

"I thought it was fun," Fuu offered.

"Sasuke, are you going to go first again?" Iruka interrupted them.

Without bothering to look over, Sasuke pulled out ten kunai and ten shuriken, and threw them at the targets, nailing all of the targets in vital areas that would kill a human.

Iruka blinked, surprised. "Uhh, well, why don't the rest of you go?"

Three hands snapped out, thirty kunai and thirty shuriken flew, and the targets resembled pincushions, but only in the vital spots.

Iruka blinked owlishly at the targets, then at the kids. "Well, uhm, inside everyone, we need to take the written test."

It was laughably easy. Naruto wondered if the Konoha standards were dropping, or if it was just that they were trained by S-class missing-nin. Kyu thought it was both, and Kurama thought it was just the dropping standards.

So, they had to sit around waiting for each person to go into the next room and either receive a headband or come out without one.

"Naruto Uzumaki," was finally called.

Naruto got up and went inside the classroom.

"Please perform the Henge and Kawarmi, and make two clones," one of the instructors said.

Naruto nodded, henging into Shisui, switching with a nicely placed log, then switching back, and creating two shadow clones, being careful not to summon Kurama, who was napping, or summon Kyu, who was also napping.

Iruka nodded. "Thank you. You passed with flying colors." He handed over a headband, and Naruto happily tied it around his head.

"Thanks, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto cheered, walking back out of the door.

Fuu walked in next, receiving the same instructions. She created a pair of scale clones, like sand clones, but made of the stuff she could do her scale flash attacks with.

Gaara made a pair of sand clones, and Sasuke managed proper clones, the illusion ones that the teachers had originally meant.

"Alright, team placements are as follows:" Iruka announced, looking at his clipboard.

Naruto listened idly for his name, and finally, it came up. "Team 7, Naruto Uzumaki, Gaara, and Shino Aburame. Team 8, Sasuke Uchiha, Hinata Hyuuga, and Fuu."

Naruto gave a huge grin to Gaara, who merely gave a slight smile in return. Fuu and Sasuke swapped grins, Sasuke giving a discreet fist pump. Hinata hadn't been cheering for Kiba during the matches a few days ago, and as such, Sasuke didn't think she was a Kiba fangirl. As such, he was perfectly fine to be on a team with her.

Naruto tilted his head at the Aburame sitting in the back. "Hey, Gaara, didn't we go over the Aburame? Were they the mind-reading clan, or the bug clan?"

"Bugs," Gaara replied. "The mind-reading clan, the Yamanaka, are always paired with the Nara and Akimichi clans when possible, forming the Ino-Shika-Cho trio."

Naruto nodded, glancing at the three squabbling in the middle row. "Cool. He's like Fuu! He's got a bug in him!"

"He has a lot of bugs in him." Gaara corrected.

Naruto waved a hand. "A bug, a lot of bugs, what's the difference?"

Gaara shook his head, deciding to drop it. Nothing good would come of arguing with Naruto.

"Team 10, with me," a bearded jounin came in, then exited, followed by the Ino-Shika-Cho trio.

The other teams disappeared quickly, until it was just the four Akatsuki kids, and their two Konoha teammates.

"Hello!" Shisui shouted cheerfully, shunshining into the classroom, closely followed by Kakashi.

"Shisui-nii, Kakashi-nii!" Naruto said, equally cheerfully, and launched himself at Shisui, hugging the jounin tightly.

"Alright, Naruto, I have your team, so let's get a move on!" Shisui turned and started walking out of the door, Naruto detaching, then quickly walking after him. Gaara sighed, and walked out after them, Shino walking after them silently.

Kakashi eye smiled at the remaining genin. "Hello."

"Hey Kakashi-nii," Sasuke said, smiling back.

"That's Kakashi-sensei to you now," Kakashi corrected, shaking his head at Sasuke.

"Kakashi-nii-sensei!" Fuu cheered.

Kakashi gestured to the door. "C'mon, I'm supposed to ask you questions about you lot, so let's get a move on, and we can all go home for dinner."

The genin filed out of the door, Fuu chattering on about something or other.

"Alright!" Shisui said. "I already know you, but humor me. Naruto, introduce yourself."

Naruto grinned. "My name's Naruto, I like Ramen and my older brothers and assorted uncles, I dislike certain idiots, and I like gardening!"

"Gaara, you go next!"

"My name is Gaara, I like puppetry, my Sensei in the art, and my assorted extended family. I intend to become the best puppeteer in the Elemental Nations, hopefully surpassing even my mentor."

Shisui beamed proudly. His kids were so cute. "Alright, Shino, why don't you introduce yourself?"

"My name is Shino Aburame. I like bugs and dislike people who kill them needlessly. I want to show everyone why the Aburame clan is part of the four noble clans of Konoha, and also discover a new species of bug."

"Nice," Shisui decided, grinning. "Alright, I'm Shisui Uchiha, I like my kits, all adopted, none of them mine, my comrades, my cousin, and a lot of other people. I don't like people who hurt children on purpose when not in actual training, and I enjoy cooking and playing with my kits!"

Kakashi slouched against a tree. "Alright, humor me and tell me about yourselves."

"I'm Fuu! I like my friends, my brothers, and Chomei! I don't like big jerks, and I like flying!"

Hinata gave her a slightly odd look, and Sasuke didn't even bother.

"I'm Sasuke Uchiha, I like my comrades, my assorted big brothers, and tomatoes. I dislike lazy people who don't work at getting better, and I enjoy training and sparring with Shisui-nii, or Itachi-nii."

"Enlightening," Kakashi drawled. "Hinata, go."

"I-I'm Hinata H-Hyuuga, I like cinnamon rolls and L-L-Lee-kun. I dislike my clan's cast system and p-pompous jerks. I enjoy pressing flowers."

"Is the stutter a verbal tic?" Sasuke asked.

Hinata turned the color of a tomato and nodded.

Kakashi sighed slightly. "Well, I'm Kakashi Hatake, I'm an S-ranked ninja, and have been called Copy-cat Kakashi."

"Kakashi-nii-sensei!" Fuu chirped.

"I have also been called that," Kakashi deadpanned. "Alright, meet me at training ground eight tomorrow. 8:00!"

They nodded, and Sasuke leaned over to Hinata. "Don't worry, we'll get him out of the house in time."

Hinata nodded, face reddening.

Fuu grinned. "Yep! He'll be on time if we have to drag him!"

"You can't drag me anywhere," Kakashi drawled. "I'm an S-class ninja, you're just genin."

"That may be, but we have threats and bribery on our side!" Fuu exclaimed, an orange book suddenly in her hands.

Kakashi made a half-hearted grab for it, and it disappeared again. Fuu smiled innocently at him. Kakashi made a deadpan expression, pulling an identical book out of his hip pouch.

Sasuke snickered and Hinata looked confused.

"He's usually three hours late to everything," Sasuke explained. "And Fuu used a mild genjutsu. Something that really only she can do."

"I'm the only one with the chakra control for genjutsu!" Fuu agreed. "In our group anyway, and not counting 'tachi-nii."

"Or Shisui-nii, or Sasori-nii, so make that just of the children, and you're fine," Sasuke said.

Hinata was very clearly confused, so Kakashi took pity on her, and dismissed them.

**(A/N) Just for you, cause it's Christmas tomorrow, here's an Omake that didn't make it into the Akatsuki chapters (cause I hadn't thought of it then)**

"I'm dying!" Shisui declared, not for the first time as he draped himself over Itachi's lap. Itachi merely moved his book around Shisui and kept reading.

"No you aren't," Kurama drawled, jumping up to sit on Shisui's stomach. "It's a freaking cold. You are a S-class ninja. You are not dying."

"I am too," Shisui complained.

Itachi closed his book and stood up abruptly, dumping Shisui and Kurama on the floor. "Shisui, you are 18, an S-class ninja, and have been self sufficient since you were 12. You are not dying, you have a cold. Just because you have a fever, does not mean you're going to die. When your temperature reaches 105, we will worry. Otherwise, there is a magical thing called Tylenol. It's in the medicinal cupboard, and clearly labeled. I'm sure you can manage."

Sasori, who'd just walked in, commented, "on the plus side, if you die, I'll turn you into a puppet with Gaara's help and he can use you as a puppet."

Shisui blinked at Sasori, who smirked and continued walking, walking out one of the other doors.

"Oi, Shisui," Kisame said, poking his head into the room. "Remora fish is asking if you've recovered from your dying. He's hungry."

Shisui hopped up from the floor, miraculously recovered. "Alright! It is around dinner time!"

Itachi rolled his eyes in sync with Kurama, who hopped back up onto the couch and settled down for a nap.

**(A/N) Oh, poor Hinata and Shino have no idea what they're getting into with this. Do you wanna see the two teams do some D-ranks, or go straight to wave? By the way, I posted a really cute oneshot about Obito not dying that first time, so go see it. Also, remember the poll about the updating schedule. It'll end this Saturday. On a completely unrelated note, it's Madara's birthday today!(December 24th) So happy birthday to him! Have a Merry Christmas! **

***Conspiratorial whisper* I've never pulled an all nighter before, and I'm doing that tonight, wish me luck! **


	16. Chapter 16

**(A/N) Wave! But first, the requested token mention/Tora mission of D-ranks. For those curious, I did not escape my mother's attention, and was forced to bed. Oh well. Maybe I'll try for New Years. Wait, does New Years count as a Holiday? Do I need a oneshot for that too? Also, I got a cool Gaara shirt, and an Akatsuki shirt with red clouds on it. I don't have the heart to tell my grandmother (she got it for me) that the red cloud pattern she likes so much belongs to the bad guys...**

"That's the fastest Catch Tora mission yet," Sarutobi said approvingly.

"Of course!" Naruto chirped. "We couldn't let Kakashi-nii's team beat us at this mission!"

Sarutobi sweatdropped, but didn't reply. Tora was walking calmly in between Kurama and Shukaku, and based on the slightest hint of teeth from the two chibi biju, the cat had probably been heavily threatened. Kakashi's team had brought the cat in via the Chomei express, and Tora had been too busy clinging onto Chomei's feet to claw anyone.

"C-rank yet?" Gaara asked. "We've done your fence painting-" that went surprisingly well most of the time, shadow clones were helpful- "your old lady grocery shopping-" Gaara had problems with that mission, just because he was short and skinny, did _not_ mean he was underfed- "and your dog walking-" that one usually involved Shukaku and Kurama corralling the dogs alongside Gaara's sand when the dogs got too rowdy- "Why can't we have a C-rank."

Sarutobi hid a grin. Perhaps they were due for a C-rank. They could certainly more than handle it.

"Why not!" Shisui decided. "Sure! Give us a C-rank!"

They were just out of viewing distance from the gate when Itachi and Kisame walked up and joined them.

"Hey, Itachi!" Shisui chirped.

"Hello," he replied calmly.

Shino was clearly having an internal freakout, despite how well he hid it. Shisui knew the signs of internal freakout. From Itachi.

"Kisame-nii!" Naruto shouted at quarter volume so no one heard them, and latched on happily, his arms barely going around the much larger man's waist.

"Hey pup," Kisame said, patting his head. "Itachi dragged me along. Or rather, Nagato insisted Itachi bring me."

Naruto pouted at him. "You didn't just wanna see us?"

"That too," Kisame acquiesced. "Is your teammate okay? I'm not that scary, am I? Although, to have terrified an Aburame is quite an achievement."

"You two are S-class missing-nin, that is most likely the cause," Gaara replied.

Kisame hummed. "Perhaps. Now, are we going to continue on, or what? And pup, get off me, as much as I did it when you were small, I cannot walk with you hanging on like a leech anymore."

"I'm not even as heavy as Samehada!" Naruto protested.

"But she's on my back, you're latched on around my waist like a giant remora fish."

Naruto pouted, but let go.

They had been walking for a while, when Kisame took Samehada off his back, released some of the wrappings, and tapped a conspicuous water puddle. Two men spilled out of it, unconscious with chakra exhaustion.

"Well, those certainly don't look like bandits, now do they?" Shisui asked, nudging Tazuna.

"They're barely chuunin level, I don't care about them," Gaara decided, nudging one of the missing-nin. "Kiri's Demon Brothers."

"You kits go ahead and get the story out of Tazuna," Itachi said. "Shisui, Kisame, go with them. I will take care of the Demon brothers."

Shisui and Kisame nodded, herding the kids and Tazuna ahead, and around a bend in the road.

Itachi stared down at the unconscious Demon Brothers, and then swiftly removed their heads. He sealed up their heads, then set his ravens on them, and walked away. The Demon Brother's bodies would be gone swiftly. Itachi would turn in their heads for the bounties later. Kakuzu would kill him if he came back without a profit.

The zantabo whirled over their heads, and it would've decapitated them, if they hadn't dropped to the floor, pulling Tazuna with them.

A man landed on the zantabo's handle and stared incredulously at them. "Shisui Uchiha? Your head band's unslashed."

"It is?" Shisui reached up to touch it and gasped in mock surprise. "It is! Amazing!"

"Zabuza Momochi, what are you doing?" Kisame asked.

"Kisame, why are you traveling with a bunch of Konoha nin?"

"I'm not."

"Yes, you are. Those are Konoha nin, you're right there, and you've been walking with them. Therefore, you're traveling with them."

"No, I'm not, I'm traveling with my partner Itachi. He's traveling with them. Nagato wanted to keep an eye on him."

"I do not need to have an eye kept on me," Itachi protested.

"I'm watching him too!" Shisui added, grinning like the Cheshire cat.

Itachi groaned.

"Why do you want to kill Tazuna?" Gaara asked Zabuza, clearly sensing that this was not going to go anywhere.

"Money, kid. You wouldn't get it."

Gaara tilted his head. "I get a lot of things. I also think you would make a fine addition to my collection."

"Gaara," Kyu sighed. "Now is not the time to be thinking about your puppet collection!"

"Every time is the time to be thinking about my puppet collection," Gaara argued, unrolling a scroll, and unsealing his favorite puppet, the first one he'd ever made, actually, Yamanaka Fubuki.

"What are you, a copier of Sasori of the Red Sand?" Zabuza scoffed.

Gaara snorted. "You wish, I am his student, and you, Zabuza Momochi, will become my puppet."

"Oh, and that hyoton user can get out of the trees," Kurama commented. "You may want him for your collection as well, Gaara."

Shino, looking mildly nauseous, at least, as nauseous as an Aburame will ever look, said, "your mentioned sensei in the art of puppetry is Sasori of the Red Sand?"

Gaara, a small smirk on his face as Fubuki settled into her taijutsu stance. "That he is."

Naruto settled into his own stance, and Shino reluctantly allowed his bugs to fly out of his body. The S-ranked ninja were still arguing behind them.

"Hey, Shino, defend Tazuna, would you? We'll tackle Zabuza until one of our idiot senseis get their heads in gear," Naruto said, creating a field of shadow clones.

The Narutos swarmed Zabuza, and he began dispelling them. They were only diversions, as Gaara's puppet came through a break in the swarm and began attacking Zabuza with the same grace the chuunin had used when she had been alive. He fought back, of course, trying to destroy everything around him. Kurama suddenly jumped into the fray, four tails swinging behind him. He was about the size of a human now, and he tackled Zabuza, using his weight to hold him down. Naruto clones jumped on him, holding down his arms and legs, but when Kurama bit through his throat, he dissolved into water.

"Water clone," Kurama growled, shaking his paws to rid them of water.

The Naruto clones disappeared, and Gaara pulled out a second scroll, unsealing the puppet inside. The puppet had been a clanless Iwa nin and was named Ibutsu. He had a very nice explosion bloodline through and was Gaara's second favorite puppet. The puppet knelt down, beginning to knead some of the damp earth between its palms, infusing it with its chakra, and making it explosive.

Zabuza reappeared, his supposed assistant by his side. "Haku, handle the clone spammer. I'll take the puppeteer."

Gaara smiled, unsealing one more puppet. He could handle ten, but three was all he needed to kill most people. This one was not anywhere near his top ten favorites, but it made a good distraction puppet, as it was a snake, easily fifteen feet long, and large enough around to swallow a human. A snake's skin was stretched across the wood, and that made it darn near invulnerable to small weapons like kunai and shuriken.

Zabuza began trying to attack him but was kept away from Gaara by his skillful manipulation of the three puppets, plus a sand clone's intervention when needed. The one time he did get close enough to slash at Gaara with his zantabo, Gaara's sand intervened, and his sword got nowhere near Gaara.

Finally, the S-ranked ninja got involved, only to watch as Haku collapsed from chakra exhaustion, and Zabuza collapsed from poison from a scratch earlier in the fight.

"You did really good!" Shisui said, giving them a thumbs up. "Ow!" He yelped as Gaara's sand whacked him upside the head. "We were going to jump in if you were gonna die."

"Good thing we didn't do that then!" Naruto chirped. "Alright Gaara, you do whatever you need to prepare them, and we'll go ahead while you do that. Seal them away and catch up when you're done. Do the actual puppetfying later, would you? Like, when we get back to Konoha later." He gestured to Kurama, who desized, and jumped up onto Shisui's head.

Gaara nodded, sealing up his puppets. "Thank you for leaving him in good condition."

"Welcome!" Naruto started herding Shino and Tazuna away from Gaara and the two unconscious missing-nin. "Have fun!"

Gaara nodded, turning to the missing-nin. Naruto turned a corner and lost sight of him.

"Who is this Sasori of the Red Sand you kept mentioning?" Tazuna asked, confused.

Naruto pulled a bingo book out of nowhere, opening it to a page, and showing it to Tazuna. "Sasori of the Red Sand, formerly of Sunagakure, now a part of the Akatsuki. S-ranked missing-nin. He was banished from his village because he killed the Third Kazekage and turned the corpse into a puppet. He uses mostly corpse puppets now and is passing the art down to Gaara, who took to it like a fish to water. Yamanaka Fubuki was his first human puppet, and she was a chuunin, but was certainly powerful enough to be a jounin."

Shino frowned slightly. "It's wrong, and descartes the corpses."

Naruto shrugged. "You get used to it when you grow up with it."

"You grew up with it?" Tazuna asked incredulously.

"Yeah!" Naruto chirped. "Sasori was really cool about letting us see his puppets!"

"You're all crazy desensitized," Shisui offered, dropping an arm around Naruto. "Weren't you the one to walk in on Sasori mid-way through a human puppet?"

Naruto nodded. "It was pretty cool! He showed me all the organs, and how he took out the bones, and even let me help a bit!"

If Tazuna had been incredulous before, he was downright horrified now. "You what?"

"I helped Sasori make a human puppet!" Naruto said again. "It was pretty cool."

Shino looked a bit queasy.

"If it helps any, I can't stomach that thought either, but they basically grew up with it, so they don't even care anymore," Itachi offered. "I stay far away from Sasori and Gaara's rooms."

"Me too, it's downright creepy in there," Kisame said, shuddering. "All those puppets on the walls."

"It's not so bad," Kurama said. "I've been in there a few times. Shukaku thinks it's great in there."

"Shukaku's insane," Gaara said, walking up to join them, perfectly clean. "You've said so yourself, many times."

Kurama waved a paw. "So?"

Gaara rolled his eyes.

Shisui hummed a happy tune. "So, we now pretty much don't have anything to worry about!"

"No, but it is possible that he will attempt to hire someone else," Itachi replied.

"Then we'll take care of them too!" Naruto chirped.

**(A/N) Poor Shino, he has to put up with Gaara, the second coming of Sasori. Also, wish me luck, I'm trying to make a crochet dragon that's supposed to end up being about 4 feet long. Also, the update roster poll ends later today, probably late tonight. For me. Either way, get your votes in before it closes, sooner is better then later. Have a happy New Year!**


	17. Chapter 17

**(A/N) Guest person: *pauses* Uhh, I dunno, was it a Star Wars reference? It wasn't intended… Other Guest person: Congrats, this is your ASAP! Four days later... Right, so yesterday, Family Means Nobody Gets Left Behind came out, so the first chapter of that is up. Sooooo many people liked it and I'm happy, and still vibrating cause people like it, and it's almost getting more attention then this, and I'm rambling. But I'm just so happy! You lot chose a three week updating roster, so congrats, you get four more stories, and an extra update of SDC! Check my profile for a new poll, and my updating schedule all laid out nicely for you to see. Ignore the bird, I'm being self indulgent. It's cute. Sorry it's so late at night, mother didn't let me on my computer all day, so oh well.**

Shisui knew Inari was grating on Gaara's nerves by the agitated sand swirling around him. Itachi and Kisame were camping a little ways away, Kyu and Kurama were in Naruto's mindscape again, and Shukaku was also in Gaara's mindscape. Didn't need him trying to attack Inari's ankles. Or everyone's ankles.

"Y'know what, if you think we're all going to die so much," Gaara exploded during dinner, after yet another "give up you're all going to die" speech from Inari. "I'll show you what my sensei will do to any of our corpses, and how that'll be just as useful!" He picked Inari up by the scruff of his neck, carrying him off to the room they had been given to sleep in.

"Don't worry, he'll be fine. Probably," Shisui said, waving a hand. "A bit traumatized at most."

Tsunami looked at him, aghast. "A bit traumatized!?"

"Gaara's just showing him his puppets," Naruto dismissed.

"If he's being shown puppets, why would he be traumatized?" Tsunami asked.

"They're made with human corpses," Tazuna said, shuddering.

Tsunami's face went from agast to white with pure horror, and Tazuna patted her on the back sympathetically.

"Maybe we should've set Naruto and his Talk no Jutsu on him," Shisui mused. "Probably less traumatic."

"This is more fun," Naruto argued.

Gaara came back in, dragging a basically comatose Inari behind him. He dropped him back in his seat, and sat back down to finish eating.

Naruto patted Inari on the head sympathetically, then continued eating.

"So, d'ya think Gato will send more missing-nin people at us?" Naruto wondered that night in his mindscape.

Kyu, at some point, had decided he wanted to try long hair, and as such was brushing it on one side of the room. "Maybe, it's possible."

"He'll probably just send thugs. Cheap ones that come in large numbers," Kurama rumbled, his head resting on his paws. "That's what his kind of evil human does usually."

"I suppose," Naruto agreed, settling down on one of Kurama's tails.

"This belongs to you," Itachi said blandly, walking up to where their team was protecting the bridge, and dropping a bird in Naruto's hands.

Naruto blinked at Itachi, before looking down at the bird, a small white cockatiel. "Oh! Shio! Who let you out of your cage?"

Shio chirped accusingly at him.

Naruto frowned at the bird, turning to Itachi. "I apologize to Kisame for Shio."

Itachi nodded stoically, a very slight smile flickering at the edges of his mouth. "I will relay your apologies. Would you like his cage in your room?"

Naruto nodded, glaring slightly at Shio. The bird chirped unapologetically at him, squirming out of his hands, and perching on his shoulder.

Gaara dismissed the bird quickly, going back to watching the bridge. Shino watched it for a few moments, before doing the same.

"I thought you left that bird at the hideout," Shisui said.

Naruto nodded. "I did. Apparently he bullied Kisame into letting him out of his cage, and ended up following Itachi and Kisame to find me."

"Smart little bird," Shisui muttered.

"Dumb little bird," Naruto corrected. "You shouldn't have followed me Shio! You could've gotten hurt!"

Shio was rather unapologetic.

"Hey, are those the thugs Gato hired?" Naruto wondered, pointing to the mist just off the bridge. "I mean, it's kinda about time, cause the bridge is nearly done."

Shisui activated his Sharingan and glared at the mist. "Probably."

"The Sharingan can't see through mist," Gaara's deadpanned. "Why you have it active is beyond me."

"But maybe they can see me, and now I have glowing red eyes!" Shisui countered cheerfully.

"Then they'll just think you're a demon," Naruto deadpanned.

"Why did we let you walk off to Konoha again?" Kisame asked seemingly thin air. "You're like a comedy show that never bothers to end and will never leave."

"Cause we said pretty please!" Shisui chirped.

"He did," Itachi confirmed, also activating his eyes as the thugs walked out of the air. "Genin?"

Naruto snorted. "Nah, we'll let you handle it. You left Zabuza and his fake hunter-nin to us after all!"

"Haku," Gaara supplied. "Haku Yuki. I asked Zabuza."

Naruto waved a hand. "Right, Zabuza and Haku."

"I handled the Demon Brothers," Kisame protested weakly. Weakly because they all knew he'd go slaughter the thugs with a grin on his face. Except maybe Shino, but he looked like he was getting an idea of what was about to happen. Poor Shino, having to deal with the bloody comedy that was their lives.

"No, Samehada did," Naruto countered cheerfully. "Try again!"

"I'm happy to!" Shisui chirped, freeing his tanto from its sheath.

Shino took this as a cue to hurry Tazuna and the other bridge workers away from that end of the bridge, and into the mist so they couldn't see. A two-tailed Kurama went with him as backup.

"Did you want any, Gaara?" Itachi asked, sharingan spinning.

Gaara shook his head. "Mere thugs. Useless except as meat shields, and even then, wooden puppets work much better in that capacity."

"Alright!" Kisame said, grinning, well, more like baring all of his very sharp teeth. "Thug extermination. Easy as fish soup."

"You can't cook fish soup," Gaara said blithely. "You burn it."

"That's beside the point," Kisame said, pointing Samehada at Gaara."

"Sure it is," Gaara replied, deadpan. "It always is."

Itachi snorted softly, and Naruto reacted like he'd been stabbed. "Itachi! You reacted! Imposter!"

One particularly fool-hardy thug ran forwards, and Itachi dispatched him ruthlessly without even looking, one chakra charged poke to the forehead had the thug's brains blown out the back of his head.

"Not very smart is he?" Shisui noted.

"Considering his brains are splattered across the ground, I highly doubt that," Naruto said, grinning as Shisui and Kisame charged headfirst into the now very angry and charging thugs.

Shisui was more graceful than Kisame, who was often literally tearing through thugs, leaving organs, limbs, and assorted bodily fluids on the ground in the wake of his destruction.

Naruto happily cheered them on, and Gaara remained standing, watching the devastation with a slightly pleased look. Itachi busied himself weaving a genjutsu over the thugs.

A few minutes later, they were all dead, and the battlefield had been cleansed by way of high powered fire ninjutsu. The earth would be barren for a while, but that was easily fixed with a couple of earth jutsu, and a convenient raincloud by way of a water jutsu from Kisame.

Shino came back, Naruto having sent another Kurama clone off to get him. He raised an eyebrow at the bare ground, over which was a heavy and dark raincloud. There was also a very significant absence of Shisui and Kisame, who had gone splashing around in the ocean to get the blood off.

"You probably don't want to know where the thugs went," Naruto said helpfully. "Or where Shisui-nii and Kisame-nii went."

"They're in the ocean, the thugs went to where ever idiots like them go when they die," Gaara deadpanned.

Shino nodded slightly, not saying anything as he walked back to the bridge workers and Tazuna to reassure them the thugs were gone and they could continue.

"I have a thing to do," Itachi said suddenly, disappearing in a shunshin.

"I'm sure he does," Shisui commented from over the side of the bridge. It was followed by some splashing, and they assumed Kisame had ambushed him with a water fight.

Shio chirped from his perch on Naruto's head.

"Yeah, you're right," Naruto agreed. "I probably shouldn't have let you see that. You are a bird afterall."

"He seems fine," Gaara said, raising a nonexistent eyebrow.

Naruto shrugged. "Weird bird?"

Gaara rolled his eyes. "Weird bird," he agreed.

**(A/N) So! Back to Konoha next time! Yes, Itachi is going to deal with Gato, ignore him, he's over protective and doesn't want to bother with more thugs. To those who read both this and Family Means Nobody Gets Left Behind(until more people get the reference, I'm not giving out it's actual nickname) Do I need to put an update date on that currently empty friday spot? Or will you manage for three weeks. *amused* Remember the poll, would'cha? I'm freaking curious about what you think of the titles I offered up. Side note, Did you want to see what Kakashi's team has been doing before the chuunin exams?**


	18. Chapter 18

**(A/N) Heyo! So… nobody cares that I just offered to give you another update of the Lilo and Stitch fic… weird. (Family Means Nobody Gets Left Behind's nickname) I thought those of you that read it would be more excited about that… And really, nobody cares about Kakashi, Sasuke, Hinata, and Fuu? **

Ultimately, the bridge was built, and they went back to Konoha. Gaara disappeared into his room for the next few days, reappearing for meals, washing blood off his hands and arms as he did so.

"How is nii-san?" Sasuke asked as they walked in. Itachi and Kisame had parted ways from them a little ways out from Wave, as they had their own things to do.

"He's good, he didn't cough once!" Naruto said happily. "I think he's feeling better."

"Oh good, I'd hate to have a repeat of last time," Kakashi commented, glancing up from his Icha Icha.

"That was a nightmare," Shisui muttered, shuddering dramatically.

"Itachi-nii's too stubborn for his own good sometimes," Naruto said mournfully. "Also, Gaara has new corpses, so he won't be out for a while."

Kakashi and Sasuke nodded, understanding. Gaara would pop in for meals, but otherwise, he would be working.

"So," Shisui said, leaning forward. "How's Hinata holding up?"

"As well as can be expected," Kakashi admitted. "She may just prefer training sessions, as crazy as they are, to her house. She keeps arriving early, like, ridiculously early, practicing by herself in the empty field until the other two arrive, and we begin."

Shisui was suspicious now. "How early?"

"The time I bothered getting up early enough to check, three in the morning," Kakashi admitted. "I don't even know if she sleeps, it's exhausting."

Shisui looked very worried now.

"Hey, Shisui-nii-sensei?" Naruto asked, all bright bubbly fake innocence. "Her dad won't kill us if she doesn't reappear after the invasion Orochimaru-ji is plotting?"

Shisui looked at him. "How do you even know that. You are not supposed to know that."

Naruto smiled innocently. "Kurama likes Hinata, she's nice. He told me."

Shisui shook his head. "Of course he did."

A poof of smoke appeared next to Naruto, Kurama showing up in all his currently two-tailed glory. "In my defense, Hinata was very nice when Naruto met her as a kit."

Naruto looked confused.

Kurama rolled his eyes, lounging on the couch. "The girl you thought was sick. Don't remember her?"

Naruto scrunched up his face, then it cleared. "Oh! Yeah! Now I do!"

Shisui shook his head, rolling his eyes fondly.

Naruto pouted at him. "Not my fault, I knew her for like, a day! And that was ages ago!"

Sasuke scoffed. "I remembered her, and she remembered me after a few days."

Naruto stuck his tongue out at him.

"Now now boys, no arguing," Shisui chided.

They stuck their tongues out at him in sync.

"Where's Fuu?" Naruto asked, glancing around like she was hiding behind a couch or something.

Kakashi shrugged. "She muttered something about girl stuff, and rushed off. Dropped by the kitchen earlier to grab a heat pack, so that may signal something."

Shisui rolled his eyes, already moving towards the door. "I'll be back with chocolate, give me a moment."

Naruto looks confused. "Why does he go get chocolate about this time every month again?"

Sasuke sweatdropped, and walked out.

"I'm not giving him that talk," Kurama decided, poofing out of existence.

Kakashi sighed heavily. He was so not getting out of this one, as unfortunate as it was. "Alright, so once a month-"

Shisui came back to a shell shocked Naruto and a mildly amused Kakashi. He sighed. "Kakashi, why?"

Kakashi shrugged. "He asked."

Shisui sighed and moved off to give Fuu the chocolate.

He came back a moment later, accompanied by a tiny Shukaku. "No, Shukaku, you cannot attack Shino! He's the heir to an important clan in Konoha!"

To punctuate his point, Shisui pulled out the spray bottle he'd taken to carrying around and squirted him with it.

Shukaku sputtered. "Hey! Don't do that!"

"I'll do it if I want to!" Shisui countered, squirting him again.

Kakashi snickered, pulling out the rolled newspaper he had from working with puppies and bopping Shukaku on the nose with it. "You can't get through his boots anyway, and if Gaara senses any blood in your sand, you get dissolved immediately."

Shukaku growled at them.

"Chuunin exams, here we come!" Naruto announced to the school building. "We spent like, two days here. Oi! Hinata, Shino, you two know where to go, right?"

Hinata nodded timidly, and Shino merely raised an eyebrow and started heading in. They followed.

The jinchuuriki didn't have their biju out, it was bad to display they had summons, let alone ones that resembled biju, as much of an adorable corgi Shukaku looked like with his stump of a tail. He got teased about it a lot. Mostly by the other biju.

Gaara had also ditched his gourd, as comforting as it was, having the massive thing on his back, they were trying to blend in. He had sealed his sand away instead and was wearing the scroll on his hip alongside his puppet scroll.

Likewise, Sasuke wasn't overtly wearing his clan crest, opting for a necklace with it instead, and keeping that underneath his shirt. Fuu also wasn't wearing the container she often did but did have a small version on her hip, a medical kit on the other side. Naruto had opted to carry a tanto, as he was able to use it, just like the rest of their group. Only he carried one out in the open, but the others could borrow it, or unseal their own.

They walked right past the second-floor genjutsu, ignoring the team that was clearly downplaying their skills, and walking right up to the third floor.

The other rookies met them there, even Kiba and Sakura's team.

"There are a lot more rookies here than usual," Naruto muttered, his back pressing against the wall. Not out of fear, more of a sense of not wanting to stand out. Even with his neon blond hair.

"Hey, look, it's Orochimaru-ji's village!" Fuu chirped quietly, grinning.

"No talking to them," Gaara muttered in a monotone. "Orochimaru-ji was very specific about not interacting with them. Unless they attack us, then we can kick their butts."

"Yeah," Sasuke said, shaking his head. "I believe his words were: If they attack you, you are permitted to pop their egos. My minions often believe themselves invincible."

"Stupid photographic memory," Naruto muttered.

"Not photographic, I just remember better then you," Sasuke sniped back.

"Boys, boys, you're both beautiful," Fuu remarked sarcastically. "Now shut up or I will stab you."

Naruto and Sasuke took the hint and edged away. On her period Fuu was scary. And not afraid to stab one or both of them. As happy-go-lucky as she was normally, she would stab you at the slightest provocation. Needless to say, the boys trod very carefully around her during that time of the month. Kunoichi were scary. Even Shisui and Kakashi admitted it.

While the idiotic boys of their group were being terrified into submission by the lone kunoichi, Gaara watched their other two teammates with the rookies, Hinata nervously tapping her fingertips together, Shino looking as unphased as ever.

Some idiot with grey hair that Gaara recognized as one of Orochimaru's spies, walked up to the rookies, offering information. He watched in mild amusement as Kabuto, was that his name, displayed his info cards. He scoffed softly. He could probably break those open in a moment. It didn't look like that complicated of a seal formula. He didn't know much, but Sasori had taught him a bit. Mostly seals to reinforce the puppets, and push back decay while he worked on a puppet, but there were fundamentals of sealing you had to know to make any other seals.

"Alright!" A male voice barked. "To your seats! They are labeled, so sit down!"

Gaara tilted his head. Ibiki Morino. Head of Interrogation and Torture. Why on earth was he- nevermind. Paper test. It must be information gathering. With the point system, you had five chances to cheat before you got kicked out.

He glanced at the paper. Not that difficult, over chuunin level, certainly, but not hard for someone who read to escape their siblings.

He answered them quickly, then discreetly began looking around for what the others were doing. He noticed a brown-haired girl with her hair in buns manipulating mirrors to let her teammates see. He could see that all of the Hyuuga had their eyes running, as did Sasuke.

Fuu had her sparkly dust spread throughout the room, Naruto was being more subtle, with his head down, talking to Kurama and Kyu. He didn't need to have his head down, it just made it easier to hide any unplanned expressions.

"Final question!" Ibiki barked.

Gaara looked up curiously, picking apart the faint traces of Killing Intent in the room, the intentionally intimidating figure of Ibiki and put his head down, relaxing. His teammates wouldn't give up, and neither would the only other team he cared about passing. He could tell Ibiki was not pleased about that, but frankly, he lived with S-class missing nin for a good portion of his life, he didn't care anymore.

"You all pass!" Ibiki announced.

"Called it!" Naruto's shout rang through the room, and Gaara rolled his eyes, sitting up. Second round, finally.

**(A/N) This is like, you last day for the poll, so yeah. It'll close when the first story goes up! BYEE! Also, second stage of the chuunin exams next time. **


	19. Chapter 19

**(A/N) We're following Sasuke this time, next time can be the other team and what they did. Thanks for the reception to NDSA, it's an amusing story to think about, huh? Dinosaur ninja… **

Sasuke wasn't all that impressed with the so called 'Forest of Death' frankly, uncle Kakuzu was scarier. The one time they'd met the man.

"There are giant leeches twenty meters in that direction." Hinata said timidly, pointing off to the right.

Fuu, buzzing next to them, made an aborted move to head that direction.

"No Fuu," Sasuke said, exasperated and having grabbed her ankle. "We are _not_ going to see the giant leeches!"

Hinata giggled softly.

Fuu pouted. "But I wanna see them! And besides, I can fly!" She did a backflip in the air to show off.

"We have scrolls to collect," Sasuke sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"I can collect them though!" Fuu insists.

"Fuu, for the fifth time! You can't go see the giant leeches, and you can't just pick pocket the scrolls and run off! We are _supposed_ to be doing this as a team!"

Hinata's giggling went up in volume.

"Hinata!" Sasuke said, exasperated. "You're supposed to be helping me, not pointing out all of the dangerous creatures we might run across!"

Hinata snorted, and immediately covered her mouth and nose, blushing bright red. Fuu let out a snort of her own at the sight. "I-I'm sorry S-Sasuke-kun!" She squeaked, not sounding entirely sincere.

"Then stop doing it!" Sasuke complained, stopping and falling backwards to the underside of his branch.

Hinata giggled again, and Sasuke glared up at her from his position on the underside of the branch.

"Find a team for us to fight, and not a Konoha one, or I am hitting you both with my sword pommel and pretending an enemy team did it."

Fuu snorted, flying so she was hovering right in his face. "And what about getting a scroll?"

Sasuke snorted. "I can get one myself bug, I'm no jinchuuriki, but I'm not weak either."

Hinata leaned precariously over the branch to stare at him. "I found one, it's a Kusa team, only two members are there though."

"Third one must be out scouting," Sasuke muttered, walking back to the top side of his branch, Fuu following him up and landing next to him. "Find him."

"They're just barely inside my range, if we get closer, I might be able to," Hinata admitted quietly.

Sasuke nodded. "Alright then, we'll move closer. Hinata, if you make that self defeated miserable face one more time, I'm setting Naruto on you."

Hinata's face went cherry red. "P-p-p-please d-don't!" She squeaked.

Sasuke smirked.

Hinata nearly fainted.

Fuu groaned.

"Alright, let's get a move on," Sasuke said after a minute long stare off. They had an interesting dynamic, but it worked. He led, Fuu kept him in line, and Hinata blushed and stuttered a lot. Actually she kept both him and Fuu in line, but that was beside the point. Fuu had the dumb ideas, Sasuke fixed them, and Hinata made sure both of them weren't missing any stupid holes. Or overestimating her or themselves. Usually her, which made her blush when she carefully corrected them.

Kakashi mourned his free time when they teamed up to make him teach them something, but was otherwise managing fine.

"We should stop h-here for the night," Hinata said. Hinata always said when to stop. She had the least endurance, and while she was working on it, that wasn't actually why she was the one to say stop. "The sun'll be down soon, a-and we need light to see."

Sasuke acknowledged the order, and even if there was an hour left before sunset, and they could make a camp in less than a quarter of that time, Hinata wouldn't have stopped them if there were any better campsites closer to the other team. They were still a good few miles off, so they probably weren't in any danger of the other team stumbling across them. If they did, this was a wonderful place for an ambush. Wonderful for them, not for the team that attempted to kill them.

The lookout could be stationed in the branches of the freaking massive tree that was quite frankly, probably bigger than Sasuke's entire room. The others would sleep hidden in the roots, shadows masking where they were, and giving them ample time to wake up, get their weapons, and be ready for a fight should the lookout sound the alarm.

"Chomei says he wants final shift, so I'll take third," Fuu said, after a brief conversation with her biju. "Four tails should be plenty."

"Two would probably be fine," Sasuke muttered. "The genin in this exam are wusses. Giant bug, and they'll run in the other direction."

"Better safe than s-sorry," Hinata decided. "Four t-tails will be more than adequate."

"I'll take second watch," Sasuke decided. "You fine with that, Hinata?"

Hinata nodded. "I spotted the third member going back to the camp for the night, we should be safe, but I'll keep an eye on them."

"We can see about getting your range extended, if you want," Sasuke said to Hinata, moving off to the side to collect kindling and firewood.

"I'll hunt!" Fuu chirped, and was gone in an instant.

"O-Oh, that would probably be good, Sasuke-kun," Hinata agreed, ducking her head.

Sasuke nodded. "And please help me with my kenjutsu, if you wouldn't mind."

Hinata flushed, but nodded, before beginning to pull out her cooking supplies. Sasuke turned out eldritch horrors, and while Fuu turned out edible things, they weren't the greatest. Hinata was quickly voted as cook for the team.

Fuu returned a moment later, a bit scratched up, and with a massive rabbit with claws and fangs in her grasp. "This thing's freaking feral!" She said, once she was in hearing range. "Like, Tora type feral!"

Sasuke shuddered. Their encounter with the horrific feline was thankfully preceded by the other team's, and Sasuke and Fuu had been advised to find a cat carrier to borrow. They, unfortunately, couldn't find a cat carrier, so they used Chomei. The cat had not taken to the flying bug express well, but they brought it in intact, so they succeeded.

Apparently, Shisui's team had gone back to do it again so they had the fastest time. Sasuke wasn't feeling competitive that day, so he let it slide, and just ignored the mission from there on out.

"It'll do fine," Hinata reassured Fuu, taking the dead rabbit from her grasp. She moved away from the campsite, enough so the predators didn't follow the smell straight to their camp, but she could still be seen in case of an ambush.

Sasuke moved onto collecting larger firewood, hacking too large branches into smaller chunks with one of his kunai. It had been one of Kisame's, so it was much larger than his normal ones. It was practically half a sword on its own. Sasuke had been learning to duel wield from a mix of Kisame, who knew a little bit, and the Kakashi/Itachi/Shisui trio, who'd seen and fought a few dual wielders. He thought he was moving along perfectly fine, enough he should be able to severely confuse any other sword wielders and not cripple himself by not having both hands on his sword's handle. Dual wielding required quite a bit of precision, and the ability to split your attention between both weapons.

Hinata quickly skinned and cleaned the rabbit, bringing it back to rub assorted spices and seasonings into the meat while Sasuke got the fire lit. She had admitted she liked being in the kitchen, even as the clan heiress. It had taken a bit to build up a resistance to throwing up when someone skinned an animal, but now she could do it on her own, and not be bothered much. Much. She had problems with the more domestic looking animals, but that rabbit had clearly been feral enough, even with the long snowy white fur. Sasuke would have suspected it had been a pet at some point if not for the red eyes that looked as if it was plotting the best way to kill you.

Fuu helped gather more firewood, stuff that would ensure the fire was maintained through the night. While it created a lot of flickering shadows that were convenient to hide in, Sasuke and Fuu worked best with the element of surprise that could come from them springing from shadows. Shisui's team was very frontal assault, their team was a bit more subtle.

Sasuke lit the campfire with a quick Katon, learned from Shisui, who'd made it a hobby to pick up as many domestic type jutsu as he could get his hands on. The Uchiha clan library had a lot of them, hidden away in dusty corners. Mostly, Itachi had found them, now Hinata often went through and found some, learning them, and then giving the scroll to Shisui.

Hinata made wonderful food, even with just a fire and no kitchen. Sasuke and Fuu went to sleep with full stomachs. Hinata kept watch on a high tree branch.

Hinata's and Sasuke's watches passed without a problem, and Fuu's was mostly fine. Mostly.

**(A/N) Haha, sorry, not sorry. Next chapter can be them getting their scroll and ending up at the tower. Plus Shisui's team, if I have time. There are still two new stories this week, and an update of Family Means Nobody Gets Left Behind! **


	20. Chapter 20

**(A/N) HELLO! TBNkurama: You didn't know that? I referenced it in both chapter 17 and 18. Also, This is chapter 20! That's like, a lot. Almost double what most of my other stories are at. (the ones that weren't just started, anyway) **

Fuu was sleepy. She would admit this was probably the best time to attack them, so she was summoning Chomei early.

She turned her back for all of ten seconds, disguising the making of a scale clone as a summoning jutsu, and when she turned back around, three idiots, the ones they'd been hunting, had attempted to ambush and kill them in their sleep. Or maybe it was just to attack Fuu. From the way they were looking around, it was clear they couldn't see the sleeping forms of either Sasuke or Hinata. She sent Chomei down to wake them quietly while she held off the idiots attempting an ambush. Just held them off, because her teammates would totally kill her if she defeated and/or killed the intruders without them. Well, Sasuke would. Hinata would stand there looking mildly disappointed. Which was maybe slightly worse.

She hopped down in front of them, smiling brightly. "Hello!"

They looked mildly disturbed. "Hi." The apparent leader said. "What scroll do you have?"

"Depends~" Fuu sang. "You?"

Apparently, they took it to mean that Fuu and her team had multiple scrolls. Which they didn't. They would soon though! "Earth, give us your scrolls!"

Fuu grinned, her teammates jumping out to stand beside her. "Good! We need one of those!"

"Hinata, can you take care of the kunoichi? She has a lot of chakra, so she is probably either a ninjutsu type, or a taijutsu type," Sasuke said softly.

Hinata nodded, a slight blush on her cheeks upon realizing Sasuke hadn't bothered putting his shirt back on to fight.

Fuu had continued antagonizing their opponents, until the leader lunged for her with a kunai, only to be stopped by Sasuke's crossed blades. A katana in his left hand, Kisame's kunai in his right. Fuu took the other male, spraying scale powder in his eyes. Hinata faced off against the Kunoichi, who just sort of stood there, paralyzed.

Sasuke shoved the leader back, uncrossing his blades as he did so.

"A dual wielder are you?" He taunted. "Any skill with it?"

"Killing you wouldn't even make me work up a sweat," Sasuke returned, grinning, or rather, baring his teeth at the Kusa nin.

They lunged at each other, Sasuke holding off the other's kunai with his katana before going in with the kunai. The Kusa nin lunged back to avoid being bisected.

"Oops, that was close," Sasuke said innocently, his grin far less innocent than his tone.

"Wouldn't want to die too quickly!" Fuu called.

"N-None of you die," Hinata said, pausing the staring contest with the kunoichi to stare disapprovingly at Sasuke and Fuu. They shrugged and went back to attacking their opponents.

In the end, Sasuke brutally dislocated his enemy's arms, and Fuu just tied hers up under threat of Chomei.

Hinata and the kunoichi still hadn't moved.

"So, are you even a fighter?" Sasuke asked suspiciously, circling the red-head.

She shook her head nervously. "I-I'm just here to keep them a-alive and full of c-chakra."

"Rude," Fuu muttered. "So, name?"

"K-Karin," she stuttered.

"Any last name?" Sasuke asked.

"U-Uzumaki."

"Ah, related to Naruto." Fuu said wisely. "Hey, can we keep you?"

Karin blinked. "Wh-why would you keep me?"

"So you can learn to fight," Fuu said, like it was obvious.

"And we could probably use a medic with Akatsuki, if you didn't mind," Sasuke agreed.

"O-oh, uhm, okay," Karin managed.

"Hey, d'ya mind if we kill these two?" Fuu asked, kicking the leader. "Or are you attached."

Karin shook her head. "I don't mind."

"Cool!" Sasuke said, pulling out his katana and removing the leader's head. Fuu borrowed his instead of pulling her tanto out and removed the other guy's head.

"Alright, so, you don't mind leaving some blood here, right? We gotta make it seem like you died here so we can get you out sneakily."

Karin didn't seem squeamish about that, which was quite helpful. She quickly slashed the back of her hand, dripping blood in the spots Sasuke indicated. While she did that, Hinata quickly packed up their stuff, readying it for travel.

"With any luck, they'll think that a large predator took you," Sasuke said, surveying the clearing and accepting his stuff from Hinata. "Thanks Hinata. Okay, so lay down right there, I'll drag you off, then we pick you up and keep moving."

"Why do I need to be carried?" Karin asked defiantly.

"Because we've only left two sets of foot prints, it would be suspicious if a third suddenly appeared. Fuu flies." Sasuke said, gesturing to the ground. "Come on, we have to make it look like you died. Maybe not smell like it, but we can probably take care of that."

Hinata got the hint and activated her byakugan, looking around for a large predator in the area.

Karin reluctantly laid down, and Sasuke grabbed the back of her shirt, and dragged her off into the underbrush, Karin with a rather resigned look on her face. He walked back into the clearing, Karin in his back.

"For the record, I can walk by myself," Karin said.

"Oh, we know," Fuu said tiredly. "Naruto never stops going."

"I-if it bothers you so much, we can swap shoes next time we swap, and that way it won't be s-suspicious to let you walk while I'm carried," Hinata offered.

"I would say you two are about the same weight, so it should be fine," Sasuke agreed. "Alright, we have a tower to reach."

"Fuu, there's a giant l-leopard thirty meters that way," Hinata said softly, pointing off to Sasuke's left.

"Cool! I'll meet up with you guys in a bit!" Fuu buzzed off in the direction Hinata had pointed, Chomei following.

"How far is the tower?" Sasuke asked Hinata.

"It's s-still outside my range," Hinata said softly.

"So, at least until noon, great. We can stop when Fuu rejoins us for breakfast," Sasuke said. "Technically we still have another shift to take care of, but we can't really stay here."

"W-we've gotten less sleep anyway," Hinata agreed. "One n-night won't do much."

"We should be at the tower three days early anyway," Sasuke agreed. "You good, Karin?"

Karin nodded against his back, where she'd buried her face and not looked up since they'd started tree leaping. "J-just a bit nervous, I-I dont so well with h-heights."

"Alright, if it becomes too much, we can walk on the ground," Sasuke said.

Karin made an affirmation noise, and fell silent.

Fuu rejoined them two hours later. Chomei was nowhere in sight, but no one bothered to mention it. Sasuke and Hinata knew where he was, and Karin would know eventually.

"So, the leopard apparently had kittens, and oh my gosh, they're adorable!" Fuu cooed. "So small and fluffy!"

Sasuke didn't bother answering her.

"Y-you didn't touch them, d-did you?" Hinata asked.

"What do you think I am, suicidal?" Fuu scoffed. "Nah, just watched them play. They really were so cute though!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes, and stopped in the next clearing. "We should stop here temporarily for breakfast, then continue moving. Fuu, do you think you can manage hovering this entire time? So we don't leave four sets of prints here."

"Aren't you being a bit over careful?" Karin asked, after being set down.

"Not in the slightest," Sasuke insisted.

"Better safe than sorry anyway." Fuu agreed. "Not that there are probably any actually good trackers in these exams."

"K-Kiba-kun, Shino-kun, and I would have been a tracking team," Hinata offered.

"Hey, Karin, you're from Kusa, do you have tracking based teams?" Fuu laid down in the air, hovering in front of Karin's face.

"A couple. My… old team, I guess, was one of them," Karin admitted.

"Tracker teams don't usually need dedicated medics," Sasuke said, narrowing his eyes. "Someone with slight medical training, yes, but not a dedicated medic."

"I-I'm a s-sensor too," Karin admitted quietly.

"Ah, that explains it," Fuu admitted.

"We should get a move on," Sasuke said, standing up.

Karin reluctantly stood up, and Sasuke crouched down to let her get on his back.

"N-not going to take me up on m-my offer?" Hinata asked.

"I don't think I could manage tree jumping, or whatever it is you're doing," Karin said apologetically. "I barely am now."

"Alright, let's just get to the tower, then we can pass you off to my brother maybe." Sasuke said, leaping up, Fuu following in the air, and Hinata close behind.

"Alright!" Karin squeaked, burying her head in Sasuke's collar again.

They reached the tower late that day. They opened both scrolls, and out popped Iruka.

"Hello, should've figured you would reach the tower early," he said, smiling proudly at them. "Who is that?"

"This is Karin," Sasuke said, letting the said person slide off his back. "We're keeping her. Her team is dead."

Iruka spluttered. "Y-You can't just keep people!"

"I'm fine with going with them," Karin offered. "And his big brother, whatever that means."

"His brother is an S-ranked criminal!" Iruka squawked.

"So was my sensei!" Sasuke said indignantly.

"He killed your clan!" Iruka continued.

"For good reason!" Sasuke shot right back.

Fuu sighed, fluttering in between them. "Let's not do this right now, alright boys?" Pointed glares brought her point home, and both back down, Iruka more reluctantly.

"Congratulations," Iruka said finally. "You pass this section of the Chuunin exams."

**(A/N) SORRY! They got chatty! But yes, Karin is now joining them. So, I have a poll up on my profile that is for an open update spot. Go vote now! Bye!**


	21. Chapter 21

**(A/N) Shisui's team, finally. Kakashi's team got chatty, didn't they… So, yeah, poll is going down a few hours or so after I post this, to be replaced with the options of what you picked. If you wanted another update, it'll have the options that can be updated again, if you want a new story, there'll be the options of stories I have available to start updating. **

"I mean, it's not _that _scary," Naruto said, looking around as they hopped through the branches.

"We're just desensitized," Shino noted. "Why? Because you two dealt with a puppeteer that uses human corpses since you were kids, and I am dealing with you two."

"We're not that scary!" Naruto protested.

"For most people, I would disagree," Gaara said, raising an eyebrow.

Naruto pouted. "We aren't that scary, are we?"

"We've been trained by several S-class missing ninja," Gaara deadpanned. "If we aren't even remotely scary, we clearly didn't learn anything.

Shino clearly agreed, but got distracted. "Incoming, from the left."

Three Ame nin leapt out from the treetops, the leader's kunai countered by Naruto's tanto. Naruto threw him back, settling into a proper stance.

Next to him, Gaara similarly threw his opponent backwards with his sand, and Shino had simply avoided the nin, jumping up to a higher branch, recalling some of his kikaichu, and drawing more out to hover around him in a dark cloud.

They faced each other for a moment longer, before lunging, separating onto different levels of branches. The nin shot up to battle Shino, the other two lunging at Naruto and Gaara.

"You are worthless," Gaara decided after a taijutsu exchange where he purposely didn't let his stand intervene. Now his sand flowed up, catching the Ame nin and holding him tightly. "Do you have the scroll?"

"Yes!" The nin squeaked, apparently realizing that if he had the scroll, he would live, at least a little longer.

Gaara raised an unimpressed eyebrow. He was lying, it was clear on his face. Just in case, he only crushed the Ame nin's neck, letting the remains of the body fall down to the forest floor below.

"I got the scroll!" Naruto shouted.

Gaara debated whether it was worth it to actually crush the nin, and decided against it. He'd get blood later anyway.

A second body fell past him to rest on the ground next to the one he killed, swiftly followed by a third. That must have been the extra training Shisui took Shino aside for, merciless killing. It was a useful skill to have, the ability to kill without remorse.

Gaara jumped up to join his teammates on the higher branches, to find Shino looking mildly queasy, probably from killing the nin, and Naruto cleaning his tanto.

"Scroll?" Gaara asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Scroll!" Naruto chirped, holding up a copy of the one they already had.

"Great, now we have to hunt down another team," Gaara muttered. "That's a copy of the scroll we have, Naruto."

"I will attempt to locate another scroll," Shino said, his kikaichu bugs spreading out again.

"In the meantime, we should continue towards the tower." Gaara said.

Naruto sheathed his tanto, and hopped up. "Let's go!"

"Can we walk for a while?" Shino requested politely.

Naruto and Gaara both nodded, hopping down to the forest floor.

"Just warn us of giant leeches!" Naruto said, grinning. "And tigers!"

Shino inclined his head. "That will not be very difficult, why? Because there are no carnivorous animals in the area."

"If there isn't much competition, we'll have to find a tiger to even appear challenged," Gaara deadpanned.

"And let it get a few hits in?" Naruto asked, raising an amused eyebrow.

"Or not," Shino said, frowning.

Gaara rolled his eyes and walked off.

"I found a team."

"Where?" Naruto asked Shino, his tanto already half drawn.

"Straight ahead. We'll come upon their camp in another minute or two."

"Do you know who they are?" Gaara asked. "Are they a non-leaf team?"

Shino paused, and they stopped with him. "Unknown. I do not recognize their chakra, and my kikaichu do not recognize their scents. If they are leaf-nin, I do not know them."

Naruto created a Kurama shadow clone. "Hey, Kurama, could you go check the team that's ahead? We're worried they're leaf ninja."

Kurama sniffed the air. "Probably are, but I'll check anyway. Be right back."

He bounded off into the undergrowth, avoiding the sharp things that could pop him. He stuck his head out of the bushes, tilting his head at the three nin. They were leaf nin, one was a Hyuuga, and the other male was wearing a green... thing. The sole female had twin buns on her head. He bounded out of the undergrowth to test them slightly. A kunai would have impaled him if he hadn't leapt aside at a vital moment.

"Good reflexes for a fox," the female muttered, drawing another kunai.

"Ignore it," the Hyuuga snapped.

"It could be a summon," the female said irritably. "It's far too intelligent to be a normal fox."

"I mean you no harm," Kurama said, startling all three of them. He was nearly impaled by another kunai.

"Who is your summoner?" the Hyuuga growled.

"A leaf nin like yourselves," Kurama said levely. "They didn't want to come in guns blazing and accidentally attack another leaf team."

The green one lit up. "How youthful!"

Kurama backed up slightly, his tail brushing the undergrowth. "I'll get going now, if you don't mind…"

The girl looked mildly exasperated at her green teammate. "Right, well, tell your summoner we appreciate it."

The Hyuuga grunted, not saying anything, but glaring at Kurama.

Kurama sniffed at him, and bounded back into the bushes, hurrying back to the others.

"So?" Gaara asked.

"Leaf nin. Some guy in a green thing, a Hyuuga, and a girl who kept throwing kunai at me."

"Sounds like Gai's team," Naruto said, grinning. "Let's go meet them!"

"Let's not," Gaara said, rolling his eyes. "We have delayed enough. Kakashi's team may already be at the tower."

Naruto gasped. "You're right! Let's go! We can't let them beat us!" With that, he jumped back up into the trees and took off.

Gaara rolled his eyes, and Shino sighed minutely.

Kurama shrugged. "Come on, we can't let him do anything stupid." He followed his jinchuuriki up into the trees, Gaara and Shino following a second later.

"A team is incoming, to our right," Shino said, an hour later. "Also, we are three hours from the tower."

"Nice!" Naruto cheered. He quickly turned to face the new team, and simply blocked the incoming punch from the leader. Like last time, Shino dodged, and Gaara batted his opponent away from him.

"Sound team," Gaara said, grinning maliciously.

Kurama growled, growing in size, three more tails separating from his previous one. "Orochimaru said knock 'em down a few notches, didn't he?"

"He did indeed!" Naruto cheered, ducking another punch. His opponent jumped back, firing off some powerful jutsu at Naruto, who easily substituted with a log.

Gaara noted the activating of his sand armor to protect his ears, and glanced at his opponent, noting the machine on his arm. Get rid of that, get rid of the noise.

Gaara lunged, sand reaching forward to wrap around his opponent's arm. The nin dodged, attempting his jutsu again. When Gaara was unaffected, the nin lunged forward to engage in a taijutsu battle.

From there, it was easy to slip sand into the machine, clogging it something fierce. With it taken out of the picture, Gaara's armor stopped covering his ears, letting him hear.

Gaara finished the taijutsu exchange, making the sand in the machine burst outwards, exploding the machine and severely wounding the nin.

"Do you have the scroll?" Gaara monotoned.

The mostly unconscious nin didn't reply. Gaara sighed, and sent some sand to search his pockets.

"I got the scroll," he called to his teammates.

"Alright," Kurama called back, before ripping off the arm of the nin he and Naruto had been fighting. Naruto quickly dislocated the other one.

Shino's opponent had quickly been sucked dry of chakra, and was currently slumped against the tree.

"Ah good, they're all alive!" Kurama said, nodding as he shrunk and went back to having only one tail.

"Orochimaru would kill us if they were anything else," Naruto said, rolling his eyes. "Or try to, at least."

"He'd fail," Gaara deadpanned. "Now let's go, they had the right scroll."

Three hours later, they arrived at the tower, summoned a random chuunin, passed, and settled in for the night.

**(A/N) So, prelims next. Should I just pull out a randomizer and just randomize the matches, or… I could actually just say not enough teams passed. Temari and Kankuro didn't come, the sound nin probably won't survive, they might, but probably not, Kiba and Sakura's team didn't participate, leaving us with three rookie teams and Gai's team. Although there were those random nin that made it to the prelims. So, whadda say? Who should be in the prelims, if there are any? Also, poll goes down tomorrow morning, and the choices go up right afterward.**


	22. Chapter 22

**(A/N) I decided against Prelims. Pointless battles anyway. So anyone have any opinions on how the Finals should go? My smallest brother insisted upon Hinata and Neji fighting, so that's happening. **

"Oi!" Naruto shouted, waving his arm.

Hinata and Fuu both waved back, and Sasuke nodded, continuing his stare down with Iruka.

"Who's that?" Naruto asked, bouncing up to Karin, who squeaked in surprise.

"That's Karin!" Fuu said, grinning. "We found her, and we're gonna keep her!"

Nearby, Iruka facepalmed but didn't argue.

Sasuke stopped his stare down of Iruka, to walk over to greet Naruto properly. "You got here before we did."

"We did!" Naruto said, grinning widely.

"Ah, you arrived," Gaara noted, strolling into the main room. "We have almost four days to recover, perhaps it will actually be interesting, instead of pointless."

"You would be working on your puppets anyway," Naruto said, waving his hand dismissively.

Gaara frowned at him. "Despite what you believe, I do not spend all of my time on my puppets. I have kata and exercises to do as well."

"Whatever!" Naruto chirped, seizing Karin by the arm and dragging her off. "They have ramen!"

Only one other team arrived during the time they were there.

"Hello!" The green genin said, waving happily to Kurama.

Kurama inclined his head. "I see you made it. Congratulations."

"How long have you and your summoner been here?" The Hyuuga asked suspiciously.

Kurama shrugged. "A few days. There's a second team here as well."

The Hyuuga snorted imperiously. "Losers, I'm sure."

"And I'm sure you can summon so well," Gaara commented, strolling around the corner. "Greetings."

"Hello," the female said, sighing. "I apologize for my idiot teammate, he has yet to have a proper beat down. We're working on it."

Gaara tilted his head. "Should the number of people arriving within the next 12 hours prove sufficient, we may have a preliminary round. Should I be paired against him, I will ensure he is thoroughly reminded that there are, in fact, people better than him."

The Hyuuga snorted.

"My name is Gaara, and the fox is Kurama. Your names?"

"Tenten," the female said, nodding.

"Neji Hyuuga," the Hyuuga said brusquely.

"Rock Lee!" The green one exclaimed. "Most youthful student of Maito Gai!"

"Told you they were Gai's students," Kurama muttered. "It's the green spandex."

Gaara raised an eyebrow. "Well, if you require leading to the Konoha section, I was heading there now."

"The sections of this tower are separated by village, prevents contestants from trying anything stupid with people from rival villages," Kurama explained.

"Makes sense," Tenten tried, looking only mildly exasperated when Lee ran past her yelling about meeting his teacher's 'eternal rival's' students.

"Are they always like that?" Gaara asked, raising an eyebrow at the still sulking Neji, and where Lee had been before he ran off.

"Unfortunately," Tenten sighed.

"Hey, Lee! I can't believe you guys made it!" Fuu shouted, buzzing over to the green spandex clad genin.

"That is like, worse then the orange jumpsuit phase I went through," Naruto admitted.

"You actually admit that was terrible?" Sasuke gasped.

Naruto pouted. "It wasn't that bad!"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "It was."

"It was pretty bad," Fuu called over. "But very eye-catching!"

Karin raised an eyebrow at Naruto curiously. "Orange jumpsuit phase?"

"He decided these horrid neon orange jumpsuits were the coolest things ever."

"Like the color of my headband!" Naruto shouted, pointing to the painted surface of his forehead protector.

Karin blinked at it. "That's a… uh, very bright color."

"And it glows in the dark," Gaara commented dryly, walking in with the other two members of Lee's team.

"Why?" Tenten asked rhetorically, looking mystified.

"Cause it's awesome," Naruto told her solemnly.

Sasuke and Gaara just shook their heads tiredly.

"Sensei does it too," Gaara sighed. "Where are Shino and Hinata?"

"Sleeping, I think," Sasuke said. "Not everyone has the stamina we do. Also, it's kinda late."

Gaara nodded. "In that case, we should all head to bed, in case of a Preliminary round tomorrow." "I guess you're right," Naruto admitted sadly.

"Due to the amount of genin that passed the second round, there will not be a preliminary round." Hayate, a sickly Jounin, said, before coughing violently. "Please come up and choose a number."

The nine genin walked up to select a number.

"4," Neji said, frowning slightly.

"5," Shino said.

"1," Gaara monotoned quietly.

"6," Tenten said, glancing at Shino thoughtfully.

"2," Sasuke said, narrowing his eyes thoughtfully at Gaara, who smirked.

"3," Hinata said quietly.

"7!" Lee shouted.

"8," Fuu chirped.

"9," Naruto said, grinning for a couple of seconds before realizing he wasn't going to fight until the second round.

"There will be one month between now, and the final round of the Chuunin exams. It will be tournament style. The person who wins may be promoted, or they won't, sometimes everyone is, other times no one is. Baseline, a promotion is not guaranteed."

"So what is everyone doing for the month?" Naruto asked, draped over the side of one of the couches in the apartment.

"I'm going with Kisame," Sasuke said. "I know I'm not winning against Gaara, but I might as well put up a fight."

"Showcase enough skills, strategy, and guts, and you'll probably make chuunin," Kakashi agreed. "Get Kisame to teach you a couple of water jutsu while he's at it, I know you don't know any of those yet."

Sasuke nodded, going back to sharpening his katana.

"I will be going with Sasori," Gaara said, glancing up from one of his puppets on the kitchen table.

"For the last time Gaara, if you need a table, use the coffee table, it's not like we use it for anything else," Shisui sighed.

"This is higher, and I don't have to sit on the floor," Gaara replied, replacing the part in his puppet.

Shisui rolled his eyes but dropped it. "Fuu? You thinking of anything?"

Fuu shrugged. "I dunno."

"Naruto?" Kakashi asked. "We do have a perverted idiot that taught your dad if you wanna kick him in the nuts and make him teach you."

Naruto chewed on his lip. "Maybe. I mean, I'll probably be fighting Fuu, cool as Lee is, I don't think he can quite reach Fuu when she starts flying."

"Aww, thanks for your confidence in me!" Fuu chirped.

"And besides," Naruto couldn't help but to add, "you've always got Chomei to get you out of a tight spot!"

"Argh, you!" Fuu leaped off the couch and lunged at him, both of them ending up on the floor, wrestling.

Shisui rolled his eyes. "Take it outside, or at least to someone's room, so you don't cause too much damage?"

Fuu and Naruto hopped up immediately, jumping out the nearby window, Fuu buzzing off towards a training ground, and Naruto hopping over roofs to follow.

Kakashi chuckled. "We'll get an answer out of them when they come back."

"And after they sleep off all the damage they did to each other," Shisui agreed tiredly. "Why did we want to be jounin sensei again?"

"Cause everyone else is an even worse missing ninja, and would be even worse teachers," Kakashi replied.

"And you can't say no to us," Gaara replied dryly, sealing up the puppet.

Shisui and Kakashi stuck their tongues out at him.

**(A/N) I honestly have no idea what to do with Fuu and Naruto. Any ideas? Also, poll, go vote, yep. **


	23. Chapter 23

**(A/N) Hmph, see if I ask you for ideas again! *sticks nose in air***

Some of them did have to stay within the city, to avoid most of the suspicion. Naruto finally decided to work with Jiraiya, with the added provision he could go train with Shisui or Kakashi if the old pervert wasn't actually teaching him anything. Fuu, Sasuke, and Gaara snuck out to work with Utakata, Kisame, and Sasori, respectively.

* * *

"He won't even pay attention to me!" Naruto said, flopping down onto one of the couches, his head near Shisui's lap.

Shisui placed his book down, a mischievous grin on his face. "So, would you like to learn about jutsu creation?"

Naruto grinned, equally mischievous. Shino, who was sitting across from Shisui and reading a strategy book, took one look and decided to leave, quietly setting the book on the coffee table and leaving through the window.

* * *

**(Two days later(Aka: Why Shisui, why?))**

"Ero-senin! I made a jutsu, wanna see?" Naruto shouted, grinning bright enough to blind someone.

Jiraiya grunted, turning slightly to look at him. "You did, eh?"

Naruto's grin changed to mischievous, and from up on a nearby rooftop, Shisui grinned the same smile, and held up his camera, Sharingan activated to see everything.

Naruto made the ram hand sign, shouting out, "SEXY NO JUTSU!"

Shisui cackled loudly from his rooftop, snapping a picture of Jiraiya's astonished face. He tucked away the camera, and got out of there, lest the pervert attempt to murder him.

Naruto cackled loudly as well, the males of the crowd that had gathered passing out, and the ladies looking very angry indeed. He disappeared in a puff of smoke a moment later, signaling he'd been a shadow clone.

Jiraiya wiped the blood off of his nose. "Perhaps the brat is smart enough to teach."

He was quickly set upon by angry women.

* * *

"Sasuke," Itachi greeted when Sasuke found them, proud of himself for using the tracking skills Kakashi had taught him. Unaware they had in fact known he was trying to find them days ago, and had been leaving a deliberate trail.

"Nii-san," Sasuke replied. "Where's Kisame-nii?"

Itachi tilted his head towards the nearby river. "Fishing. Or possibly swimming. Unknown."

Sasuke nodded, plopping down on the log. "I have to be back in Konoha in just under a month."

"Noted," Itachi replied. "We will ensure we are near there in about a month."

"And come see me in the finals?" Sasuke asked hopefully.

Itachi nodded. "Probably."

"Hey brat," Kisame said, coming back with three fish strung up on a stick. "Was wondering when you'd get here."

Sasuke grinned. "Teach me? I'm facing Gaara in the finals, and I have to put on a show."

"You do know you have no chance at winning kid? Not really, anyway?"

Sasuke nodded. "But with any luck, I'll be chosen to be a chuunin. If I can put on enough of a show, and prove I'm chuunin material, I'll be a chuunin before we leave."

Kisame ruffled his hair as he sat down. "Sure you will kid. You're powerful enough to be a chuunin easily."

"But against Gaara, if I don't improve, I'll look like a newbie genin!" Sasuke complained, plopping down next to Kisame.

"If you put up any fight they'll be impressed, as soon as Gaara fights either Naruto or Fuu," Itachi pointed out reasonably.

"He's still easily the most powerful on the team," Sasuke pointed out, taking an offered cooked fish. "That's our age, anyway."

"You can learn a lot," Kisame said, grinning like a shark.

* * *

"Utakata!" Fuu chirped, landing in the clearing he was camping in.

"Fuu," Utakata acknowledged, continuing to pack up camp.

"Train me! I'm fighting a taijutsu specialist and Naruto for the first two!" Fuu buzzed slightly, vibrating in her excitement.

Utakata sighed. "Alright, first, think of something you can't do with your scale powder."

Fuu stopped vibrating and bounced over to sit down on a nearby log.

"Do it while we're walking," Utakata called over, tucking the storage scroll into his cloak. He tossed a smaller cloak at her, and she bounced over, putting it on as she went.

* * *

Gaara didn't take long at all to find his mentor, given he had been waiting in a nearby town.

"Shall we begin?" Sasori asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes." Gaara replied.

* * *

"He's officially useless!" Naruto announced, coming in and draping himself across the back of the couch, which was currently occupied by Hinata, Kakashi, and Shino.

Hinata reached back and patted his leg. "You can join us in trying to beat Shikamaru at shogi."

Shikamaru, sitting across from them, snorted, and moved another piece.

They quietly conferred for a moment, Shikamaru appearing to fall asleep while they did that, then moved a piece.

Without looking, Shikamaru moved another piece. "Checkmate."

Naruto sat up and blinked at the board. Yep, they had been thoroughly checkmated.

"If you stopped trying to only use one style you'd be a lot better at it. You're all getting in each other's way at the moment."

Kakashi sighed. "Naruto, get down here, and you three can consider it a team building exercise."

"Only two of us are on one team," Shino noted. "Hinata-san is your genin."

Kakashi shrugged, hopping off the couch and forcibly pushing Naruto into his previous spot. "Whatever, same thing."

"Not really," Naruto muttered, helping Shikamaru reset the board. "If you find Shisui-nii-sensei, tell him I totally want a fire jutsu."

"That's a terrible idea," Kakashi muttered, leaving through the window. "Lock the door behind you if you leave."

Naruto snorted. "Sure, whatever you say."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow, moving his first piece. "Why is that so amusing?"

"Well, you came in the window, right?" Naruto asked.

Shikamaru nodded. "Kakashi led us in, so yes, the window."

Naruto leaned over and stage whispered conspiratorially, "I'm not entirely sure the door can be used, we haven't used it yet. It hasn't stopped being locked."

"Should we try it?" Shino asked, looking at the door skeptically.

Naruto shrugged. "Easier to go through the window. Also, I'm not sure we have the key, we might have lost it."

Hinata giggled softly. "Probably did."

"You gonna go?" Shikamaru asked, laying back and closing his eyes. "Or can I take a nap."

Naruto surveyed the board, and made a move. "Right, so if I said I have a big chakra demon sealed into my gut, how badly would you react?"

Shikamaru moved a piece. "Explains the sheer energy you radiate."

Shino shrugged. "My insects already detected it. I have known for a long while."

Hinata flushed. "I-It would explain why y-you're pretty much a c-chakra beacon."

Naruto hummed happily, moving a piece. "Cool! Fuu and Gaara have one too!"

"Your supposed summons," Shikamaru said, moving a piece.

Kurama appeared in a puff of smoke, two tails waving behind him as he lounged on another chair. "Yeah, we aren't no summons kid. Not even close. Probably good Shukaku's not here, he'd try attacking you for it, and you aren't wearing any boots."

Shikamaru blinked tiredly at the fox. "Kyuubi."

"Kurama, if you don't mind." He hopped up and nudged a piece across the board. "Not too bad of a strategy, I suppose."

"Fuu and Gaara have which ones?" Shino asked, reaching out and adjusting the piece Kurama moved.

"Chomei and Shukaku, the seven-tails and the one-tails," Kurama said, hopping back up onto his chair.

Shikamaru moved one of his own pieces, taking one of theirs.

Naruto took one of his in return.

"So, Naruto, you gonna actually come home or not?" Kurama asked, amused.

Hinata looked very confused, as did Shikamaru, in his own lazy way. Shino didn't show much, but his surprise got itself across.

"I'm a shadow clone," Naruto admitted. "How did you think I was actually sitting down and patiently playing an oldman game?"

Kurama laughed. "Good one kit. Dispel after this though, and get my actual kit home, would you?"

The Naruto clone nodded, countering one of Shikamaru's moves.

**(A/N) Strategy, always important. So, I decided to have a new story for FMJ's update spot! I have a poll up, go pick one of them, they're all really cool! ...I like to think so, anyway. **


	24. Chapter 24

**(A/N) Mm, babysitting, always fun! So, did everyone hate that last chapter or something? One person reviewed… Also, third part of the exams today!**

"Oh, good morning Gaara," Shisui muttered sleepily, wandering into the kitchen to start coffee.

"Good morning," Gaara replied.

"So, when'd you get back?" Shisui asked, plopping down at the table while the water heated itself up.

"About an hour ago." Gaara replied.

"Cutting it a bit close don't'cha think?" Shisui wondered, getting back up when the kettle whistled and coming back with a cup of heavily sweetened coffee in one had, and a straight black one in the other. Gaara got the black one, Shisui got the heavily sweetened one.

"Perhaps, but I was delayed. A final training session."

Shisui raised an eyebrow at him, noting the scratches on him. "Sasori really didn't realize you already have to fight today?"

Gaara raised an eyebrow right back. "Sasori did realize that. He just didn't care. Muttered something about making it more fair for the other brats."

Shisui hummed, yawning.

"Coffee?" Kakashi asked, wandering in.

"Coffee," Shisui agreed, pointing to the kitchen. "Should still be warm."

Kakashi nodded slightly absently, returning from the kitchen with a cup of coffee in his hands.

"Oooh, coffee! Do we get some!?" Naruto asked, bouncing into the kitchen.

Shisui drained his cup in one quick gulp. "No, you have enough energy. Naruto, you aren't even fighting until the second round, and Fuu, you're the last fight. We do not need you playing the part of human vibrators until it wears off if you won't even use the energy boost."

"Then why does Gaara get some!" Fuu complained, poking her fellow jinchuuriki's cheek. Gaara batted her hand away and finished his coffee too.

"Cause he got ambushed by Sasori for a final training session right before coming here," Shisui said. "And he's got the first fight."

"Sasuke back yet?" Kakashi wondered, glancing down the hall.

"Nah, but I ran into them on the way back, Kisame and Itachi wanted to come see, so he's probably staying with them," Fuu replied, disappearing into the kitchen to see if she could find any remaining coffee. "Aww, you drank it all!"

"I know better then to prepare any more then three cups," Shisui replied, grinning at Fuu.

Naruto pouted at him, plopping down on the couch. "C'mon Shisui-nii-sensei! How could you!"

"Excuse him for not wanting to sit next to a human vibrator," Kakashi muttered, finishing his coffee. "I don't either. That's why we don't give you coffee."

Gaara snorted. "Newsflash, no one wants to sit next to a human vibrator, especially not when they're _trying_ to focus on something like a fight."

Naruto turned his pouting on Gaara, who was distinctly unaffected.

They met up with Sasuke, Kisame, and Itachi on the way to the arena.

"Greetings," Kisame said, grinning at them with disconcerting and very distinct not sharp teeth. A transformation, making him look far more normal, and a bit like Sasuke and Itachi. Not much, but enough no one would bat an eye if he said he was a very distant relative.

"Hello!" Naruto chirped. "Shisui-nii-sensei and Kakashi-nii-sensei wouldn't let me 'n Fuu have any coffee!"

Kisame chucked, ruffling the kid's hair. "Maybe when it's actually your turn to fight, I'll get you two some."

Naruto and Fuu cheered, bouncing around them.

Itachi raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure you want to do that?"

Kisame shrugged. "Maybe they'll crash at least a little bit after the battle. Enough that the one that lost won't be too annoying, and the one that wins will still have enough energy."

"They're 'you-know-what', they always have enough energy," Shisui deadpanned.

"Says the person who gave Gaara coffee!" Fuu chirped, sing-song.

Kakashi snorted. "Yeah, but he doesn't turn into a human vibrator. You two do."

"I can control my energy," Gaara noted. "I push it towards thinking, something you two clearly don't do."

Kisame snorted, and Kakashi and Shisui bit their lips to not burst out laughing.

Naruto and Fuu made very offended squawks, and tried tackling Gaara. He neatly moved to the side and they crashed into Sasuke instead, who'd been wandering along and not paying attention.

"HEY!" Sasuke shouted, shoving them off.

"Your fault for not paying attention kid!" Kisame told him cheerfully. "Pay attention to your siblings next time."

Sasuke wrinkled his nose, lashing out with his foot and hitting Naruto's shin. Naruto cursed and hopped around, holding said injured limb.

"Don't injure him too badly," Shisui said, glancing up at the arena as they approached. "So, who wants to track down our two mutual friends who totally aren't attending?"

"I will," Itachi said, disappearing into a nearby shadow.

"Cool!" Shisui chirped. "Gaara! Get those three to the waiting area intact, Shino and Hinata will meet you there. Be friendlier than usual please!"

Gaara wrinkled his nose at the last comment, but seized Naruto and Sasuke's collars, wrapping a tendril of sand around Fuu, and dragging the three off and into the arena.

"And we can wait for Itachi!" Shisui finished, grinning.

"We aren't oblivious," Kakashi noted, nose in his book.

"First up, Gaara vs Sasuke Uchiha!" Genma announced, hand held in the air, and voice echoing around the stadium.

Sasuke grinned, readying his hands for hand signs. His best bet was to strike and get a jutsu in before Gaara could unseal one of his puppets. It would probably be an actually wooden puppet, didn't want to horrify the audience _that_ much, but it was still deadly, dripping with stupid paralyzing poison that would take him out before he could put on a show.

Gaara readied one of his scrolls. Genma grinned, and his hand came down. "BEGIN!"

Sasuke flashed through his hand signs, a fire dragon bursting forth. He went through the signs again, and a water dragon followed swiftly, drawing water from the nearby lake.

When the smoke and steam cleared, Gaara was unfortunately still intact, as was the scroll at his feet, and so the wooden puppet on top.

Sasuke sighed, and got into a defensive taijutsu stance. He might as well go through all the base shinobi disciplines before pulling out his katana.

He engaged the puppet in a quick taijutsu exchange before leaping back and throwing a simple fireball at it. The puppet flew over the flames, as he had expected, only to be met with a neat water bullet to the face, destroying its face, and the following bullets destroying the rest of it.

Two more puppets came out from either side of the fireball, lunging towards him, and Sasuke was caught in a taijutsu exchange with two opponents. His katana came free of its sheath, and he sliced one apart, then lept back to fire off a basic wind jutsu to blow the puppet back and give him a bit of time.

Kunai flew from his hands, setting up a basic trap he knew Gaara would see and easily avoid, but it was the basis for a more complicated trap, a strategy his brother had helped him design.

Drawing on all the speed he possessed, activating his sharingan as well, he lunged straight for Gaara himself, channeling lightning chakra through his katana to slice through the sand and begin a kenjutsu exchange with Gaara, who had formed a tanto from his sand, channeling more chakra through it so it would hold up to Sasuke's actual katana.

Snuck in kunai flew as Sasuke pushed Gaara backwards towards his base trap, avoiding shots from the puppet, when Gaara managed them, and shots from the sand, when it attempted anything.

A nick on Gaara's cheek told him he was wearing his sand armor, as the cut closed quickly without any blood.

Gaara leaped back, skillfully avoiding the basic trap, then falling right into the other trap, being strung up with ninja wire.

Gaara inclined his head towards Sasuke. "Well done, you caught me. Now, can you keep me?"

The answer was no, as Gaara quickly kawarmied with a random log. Sasuke sighed, but prepared for an attack from anywhere as he sheathed his katana and pulled out his tanto, pairing it with Kisame's large kunai.

Another wooden puppet lunged at him, but Sasuke quickly cut it down. Its kenjutsu and taijutsu abilities were abysmal.

Yet another lunged at him, this one lasting a bit longer. Sasuke knew Gaara was playing with him, but he couldn't find Gaara. Had he forgotten any of the elements? Oh, earth! That's what he'd forgotten.

He threw up a simple earth wall to protect three of his sides as another puppet came at him.

Unfortunately, this time, the puppet wasn't playing around, and he got cut, the paralyzing poison doing its work in seconds, freezing him in place. The puppet poked him, and he fell over, unable to stop himself.

Genma hopped down to inspect him. "The winner of the first match is Gaara!"

The stands went wild, and Sasuke smiled internally. He would probably get a promotion after that. It was an epic show after all.

**(A/N) Rest of the third part in the next few chapters. Go remember the poll, go vote, etc. **


	25. Chapter 25

**(A/N) *singing* Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, guess I'll go eat worms. Long thin slimy ones, short fat juicy ones...**

Hiruzen looked to his two companions. Shikaku and Danzo were seated on either side of him, as they would both be vital in the selection of chuunin, and there were no foreign kage to be seated up here.

"Sasuke put up a good fight," Shikaku noted. "He appeared to know that he wouldn't win, and merely played to show off."

"I noticed it as well," Danzo agreed. "He would make a good Chuunin. He showed planning and plenty of skill."

Hiruzen nodded, writing that down. "I agree."

Hinata faced down her cousin in the arena, almost retreating into her hood.

"Pathetic," her cousin snorted. "Didn't your sensei teach you anything?"

"O-of course he did!" Hinata squeaked. "Kakashi-sensei was a w-wonderful teacher! Late, but a good teacher!"

Neji scoffed, but got into his stance. Hinata got into a similar, yet different one. "What is the Gentle Fist better than you will ever be?"

"N-no, I merely adapted it with the assistance of Shisui-sensei. It fits me better."

"Begin!" Genma shouted, bringing his hand down, then leaping away.

"BYAKUGAN!" Rang out across the arena, and they leaped at each other.

One gentle fist exchange later, Neji was nursing a very numb right leg, and Hinata was suffering multiple closed tenketsu on her arms. They both reversed the damage caused by the other, and went back at it again, suffering assorted mild injuries from the other, reversing them, then jumping right back at it.

After a fourth exchange, Hinata reversed the closed tenketsu, and jumped back into a tree, running through a few hand signs.

Neji glared at her, leaping towards her, only to be encased in a sudden mist. Hinata could see fine because the mist was made of her own chakra, and she could use it to see a bit, even if she couldn't use her byakugan. Neji was attempting to look for her with his byakugan activated.

A couple more hand signs, and the jutsu to spread her voice around was active. "Y-you won't be a-able to find me," Hinata said, shifting so she could lunge forward for an attack on the back of his neck, the only blindspot of a Hyuuga. "The m-mist is full of my ch-chakra, you won't be able to see wh-where I am."

She lunged, and he couldn't see her, so she hit her target, the nerves between the vertebrae on his neck, paralyzing him completely from the neck down. She cleared the mist. "Neji-nii-san, surrender or I will knock you out completely."

Neji growled audibly, but relented. "I forfeit."

"Winner, Hinata Hyuuga." Genma announced.

Medics came in, lifting Neji onto a stretcher.

"I pinched the nerves in his neck," Hinata told them. "Easily fixable."

"YOU GO HINATA!" Naruto yelled from the stands.

He was closely followed by Fuu's shout of, "YOU SHOWED HIM!"

The Hokage nodded approvingly. "She moved outside of the normal Hyuuga comfort range. Learned a very effective jutsu."

"I say chuunin material," Shikaku agreed, yawning. "She let Neji think she hadn't improved much other than changing her fighting style, then brutally defeated him."

Danzo just nodded, and Hiruzen wrote that down. "I say Neji waits another year though, he was far too arrogant, and that can kill a chuunin."

"Agreed," Danzo said. "Powerful, but arrogant."

Hiruzen watched the match closely. An Aburame and a prospective weapons master was an interesting matchup indeed. They were both mid to long range fighters, and managed to cancel out most things, Tenten's weapons being moved aside from hitting Shino, and his bugs being kept away from Tenten by the storm of metal.

After a long few minutes of the storm of metal, Tenten froze, glancing down at the bugs crawling up her legs. Hiruzen nodded approvingly. A good strategy. The kid had probably won.

Shino stopped the advancing of his bugs for a moment. "We are both low on chakra. Should you chose not to forfeit, I will drain your chakra completely, and you will loose. I will forfeit in the next round, as I do not have enough chakra for another round. You forfeit here, and I will forfeit as well, making this a tie."

Tenten gauged him, decided he was being truthful, and accepted. "I forfeit."

"Then I do as well, proctor. You may mark it down as a tie," Shino informed the proctor. The bugs left Tenten's legs, and the two shook hands. Tenten collected her weapons, sealing them all away in one big bunch to sort later.

"They both did well," Hiruzen said, smiling at the comradery shown.

"I say both could be chuunin, but I would suggest some branching out, should they wish to advance further," Shikaku said.

"Agreed," Danzo said.

"Fuu vs Rock Lee." Genma announced. "Begin!"

Fuu and Rock Lee immediately began to exchange blows, Lee slowly but surely pushing her back against a wall. When her back almost touched it, Fuu lunged forward, using her few inches of height on Lee to vault over him, flying up into the air, and spraying off a layer of the flash powder, that would reflect the sun and blind him.

He got out of the cloud, eyes closed, and lunged in her direction, trying to kick her before he fell back down to earth. Fuu dodged the attack, flying up out of reach.

Lee opened two gates, and shot after her, trying to catch her. Fuu just rose higher and higher, evading all attempts at her person, then shot down, pinning Lee on the way down, and knocking him out when they hit the ground.

Fuu stood up, Lee did not.

"Winner, Fuu!" Genma announced, after hopping down and poking Lee a few times. "As we have an extra person, they have a bye to the next round. Fifteen minutes intermission, and we'll start the next round."

"They both did well," Danzo admitted, "But not a lot of strategy was employed."

"Agreed," Shikaku said. "Lee definitely isn't ready, we'll have to see about Fuu. She may display more planning next round against Naruto."

"Something tells me that isn't how that's gonna go," Hiruzen muttered.

"Congrats!" Naruto shouted when Fuu arrived back at the competitors box. "I knew you could do it!"

Hinata smiled slightly, and nodded. "We all knew you could do it." When Fuu beamed at her, she reddened and tried to disappear into Sasuke's shadow. Sasuke had recovered after the administration of the antidote, and had decided to sit in the competitors box to watch the battles.

"Maybe use some strategy you two," Sasuke said. "If you don't neither of you will be promoted."

"We'll try," Naruto said reluctantly after a moment.

Gaara snorted. "You expect to be able to beat some strategy into their heads? I highly doubt either will use any, and will have to be genin missing-nin."

Naruto and Fuu made identical annoyed faces, showing their clear dislike of that option.

"It's most likely useless, but I might as well try and tell them to use strategy," Sasuke replied. "One day, maybe they'll listen to us."

Kurama formed with a slight puff of smoke. "On the day they listen to the voices in their heads, maybe they'll listen to you. So, never, probably." He hopped up into Hinata's arms, rumbling happily when she sat down to start petting him.

"Does this break ever end!" Fuu asked, flopping down on the floor in a starfish position.

"It's so the people watching can get snacks and go to the bathroom and stuff," Naruto replied, flopping down on top of her in a similar position. A slight grunt was all that signaled she'd even noticed his weight. "So, no, it doesn't."

Gaara snorted. "When your biju is the only one to not give you ADHD."

"When you're the only one without a biju," Sasuke replied in the exact same tone.

"Wh-when you're the only one who d-didn't grow up with a b-bunch of missing-nin," Hinata offered quietly, quite used to Sasuke doing that.

Kurama rumbled slightly louder. "When you're the only one under one foot tall. On the plus side, pets."

Hinata giggled softly, scratching behind the fox's ears. "N-Naruto, you might just h-have to do it without K-Kurama."

"He is anyway," Kurama muttered. "M 'n Chomei decided we'll let our jinchuuriki handle the fight without us." He groaned as Hinata's fingers found a spot on his back, and he flopped in her lap in a happy puddle of fox biju.

"Cool," Naruto and Fuu decided together, remaining flopped out on the floor.

**(A/N) Second round next time. Naruto vs Fuu, and Gaara vs Hinata! Comment who you think'll win on both of those. And check out the poll. It does close next week. **


	26. Chapter 26

**(A/N) Hi! Guest: I'm afraid I'll have to say no, that would be a royal disaster made of the Chuunin exams. More of one than usual. Would be hilarious and epic, but no. Also, did you know Hiding in the Mist is a D-rank technique? Crazy, right? **

**...So I have no idea how to write a brute force battle. Apologies, but Fuu and Naruto's fight was waaaay under standard, and I have no clue what to do about it. Don't get mad, if someone rewrites it, I'll replace it and give 'em credit. It fought me all the way, so like, I dunno, blame me, but don't like, get super angry in the comments? Constructive I'll accept, just angry ranting, no thank you. **

"Fuu vs Naruto Uzumaki," Genma called, before leaping away.

"You're going down!" Naruto shouted, pointing at her.

"Not if you can't catch me!" Fuu shouted gleefully, sprouting her wings and flying up into the air.

"Try me," Naruto replied, running up the nearby stadium wall, flipping off of it and tackling Fuu, who started punching him.

Hiruzen sighed heavily as the two rolled on the ground for a bit, wrestling and trading occasional punches. Shisui pretended he wasn't laughing at them.

Fuu disengaged suddenly, flying up and throwing a fireball at Naruto, who cheerfully threw a more powerful wind jutsu right into the fireball, changing its direction so it was sent flying right into Fuu, who substituted away.

"They have some firepower," Danzo noted.

"Troublesome," was Shikaku's answer.

Naruto created a huge amount of clones, Fuu quickly following suit, the two armies leaping at each other, the arena quickly being filled with smoke.

When it cleared, Fuu was strung up like a christmas turkey, wrapped in wire and some exploding tags.

"Surrender!" Naruto shouted, pointing his tanto at her.

"Never!" Fuu abruptly substituted with a log, leaving it to its fate. The tags exploded, the rapidly tightening wire shredding the log. She lunged out of the trees, crossing tanto with Naruto in a shower of sparks.

A fast kenjutsu exchange later, and they leaped apart, Fuu once more falling prey to one of Naruto's traps, falling into a rather deep pit, and promptly tied down by a couple dozen wires and a net.

"You booby trapped it!" Fuu squawked loudly.

"Darn right I did!"

Another substitution and it was a taijutsu battle.

A simultaneous punch, and both were out like lights.

"Double knockout, alright," Genma said as the two were carried out. "Next match, Gaara vs Hinata Hyuuga. The winner of this match takes the tournament."

Gaara appeared on the floor of the arena in a swirl of sand. Hinata opted to walk down.

"Ready?" Genma asked. When he received two nods, his hand came down, and he jumped away. "Begin!"

Immediately, both sand and mist spread across the arena, completely concealing it from the observer's view.

Hinata hid herself in the mist, avoiding the sand that was trying to figure out where she'd gone. Gaara had far more stamina then she did, and even if he was limited to wooden puppets so as not to freak everyone out too much, that did not reassure her one bit.

Because of her byakugan, she could see where Gaara was. He didn't know where she was, so that was somewhat reassuring. His puppets remained in a defensive stance, protecting him from all sides. Hinata just had to sneak between them to get to him. If he was unconscious, he couldn't pilot anything. Of course, she had to get past his sand, but the water in the air was already slowing it down.

Eh, she could spare some mist, and, well, the audience probably wanted to see. Time to put the water jutsu Kakashi had taught her to good use. And the increased chakra reserves he'd been pushing her to get, so she could better keep up with her teammates.

"Suiton: Water lances," she murmured under her breath before changing positions to fire the lances between the puppets. Water lances shot from her mouth, using some of the mist in the air to properly form.

Each one impacted harmlessly against Gaara's sand shield, but dampened it further, making it slower to react.

Hinata changed positions as a puppet shot out to try and scratch her. One scratch and it was all over. Gaara was very good at knock out and paralyzing poisons, and one scratch with a poisoned blade meant she would be unconscious or paralyzed in seconds.

She ducked a kunai thrown in her direction, changing positions again when she spotted the sand hovering in the air.

If she could get all of the sand sopping wet, and have a clear trail to it, she could use her one lightning jutsu to basically disable it until the match was over. It would drain most of her chakra, lightning was not her chakra nature, after all, water was, but if she could pull it off, Gaara's primary mode of defense would be completely offline at least until the match was over.

Worst case scenario would be if he hadn't actually taken out all of his sand. She'd just have to douse him with water too, just to make sure. He would probably brush off the electric shock fairly quickly, he was a biju container after all, but that wouldn't be the point.

With her remaining chakra she could probably manage two water dragons, a lightning shock, then about ten minutes of gentle fist. Hopefully it would be enough, in addition to the remaining mist being dropped to cover the ground in water.

Hinata changed positions again, spotted an opening, and called up a water dragon, using most of the mist in her area, leaving her vulnerable to the four puppets she hadn't hit with the water dragon. On the plus side, as far as she could see, Gaara was currently sopping wet, and not very happy about it, and so was all of his sand.

Now, Hinata just had to get back over to where the water dragon had left a water trail for her to send the shock through.

A 32 palms later, and the four puppets had been destroyed, and Hinata was down some chakra. She ran quickly over to where she had made the dragon, and stuck her hands in the water, at the same time coalescing the mist to where Gaara was, and releasing it. It fell down, soaking him further. Gaara did not look happy, the scroll he had pulled out now soaking wet, effectively trapping the remainder of his wooden puppets inside until it dried.

"Raiton: Lightning Shock!" Hinata cried, and Gaara stiffened at the same time his sand fell down around him, now deprived of his chakra, and completely unresponsive.

Hinata lunged forward, and Gaara met her, a kick aimed at her head. He wasn't slow, by any means, but Hinata was faster. And more flexible. She bent over into a perfect backbend, before flipping over, trying to hit Gaara's chin as she landed neatly on her feet.

He had dodged, of course, and they began an intricate dance, Gaara's puppeteer training necessitating a taijutsu style based around getting him away from his attacker so his puppet could attack. Hinata let him come to her more often than not, after all, she held all of the cards right now. Her chakra was running lower and lower the more this went on, and she eventually stopped channeling chakra to her attempted strikes, only channeling chakra at the last second, if the blow was going to connect.

When Gaara pulled out his rarely used tanto, Hinata pulled out a kunai, she did not have enough training with the tanto to match him, as he had been doing it since he was a child.

She went on the long range offensive, throwing kunai, shuriken, and senbon, something she had recently begun carrying around.

Nothing hit him, as he deflected it all with the flat of his blade.

Hinata was running out of weapons, so she ran at him again, charging up chakra for one final strike.

She knocked the tanto out of his hands with a very lucky strike, dodged an attempted strike, and began. "8 Trigrams, 64 palms!" She shouted as she began striking. "2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64!"

Gaara was thrown back, slamming against the opposite wall. He slumped to the ground, unconscious.

Hinata hadn't used chakra in two of the strikes, both of which had been to knockout points on the human body, rather than the standard chakra point hits. The result? An unconscious jinchuuriki.

"Winner, Hinata Hyuuga!"

Hinata didn't bother looking to her family. They didn't care anyway. She looked to her team and where she could see part of the Akatsuki sitting in the seats.

Naruto and Fuu had recovered quickly as always and were cheering wildly, Shisui had joined them, of course. Sasori nodded to her solemnly, as did Itachi. Kakashi eye smiled cheerfully at her, his perverted book nowhere in sight. Kisame grinned, all sharp teeth and pride. She had been using a Mist jutsu, after all.

Hinata beamed, sneaking a glance at the kage box. They seemed impressed, so she took that as a good sign.

**(A/N) Yay Hinata! You probably weren't expecting her to win, right? Sorry once more for the Fuu vs Naruto, it fought me for every word and was generally a freaking nightmare. Ugh. Also, should be about 5 chapters till this story ends. Weird right, so close to ending. Gonna be a nightmare with all those empty spaces tho… Oh well, not like I don't have enough stories to fill them all. **

**So, I dunno where those of you who voted for A Nara's Shadow Through Time and Space went, but it wasn't to check it out. So you might wanna go do that… You picked it after all. **


	27. Chapter 27

**(A/N) Guest: Yeah…. valid. But I thought Gaara and Hinata's fight was much better! I realized I should probably address this… I consider Hinata's stuttering a verbal thing, something that isn't able to be stopped. As such, even with her much improved confidence, she will never fully be stutter free. **

"Sasuke Uchiha, Hinata Hyuuga, Shino Aburame, Naruto Uzumaki, Tenten, Fuu, and Gaara. You are promoted to chuunin, here are your vests," the Hokage announced. He turned to the others. "Better luck next time. Neji, you underestimated your opponent, and that cost you the match. See that you don't do it again. Arrogance is not befitting of a shinobi."

Neji bowed, then left.

"Lee, you performed admirably, but I would suggest branching out just a bit. Perhaps pick up a weapon. I'm sure your teammate would be happy to help you select one."

Lee nodded enthusiastically, and left as well.

"Congratulations on making chuunin," the Hokage said, turning to the newly made chuunin. "You may now begin to take on missions of your own, as well as training with the others in your team. You may also lead teams on missions, if the situation calls for it."

Fuu grinned. "Of course, Hokage-sama!"

"I'm sure your sensei are very proud of you," he finished. "Dismissed."

"They are, I'm sure," Naruto agreed as they left.

Tenten paused, then shuddered. "Oh stars, the youth involved in that speech will scar me for weeks."

Fuu patted her on the shoulder. "We send strength. And will help with the recovery as much as possible."

"Thanks…" Tenten muttered, turning off as they left the tower.

"You guys did well!" Shisui chirped, appearing in front of them, grinning.

Kakashi shunshined in next to him. "Agreed. Impressive that two full teams made chuunin. That hasn't happened since the sannin, let alone to two teams."

"We'll, they hadn't had genin like us!" Naruto shouted.

Kakashi patted him on the head patronizingly. "Of course."

Naruto puffed up in indignation, but Shisui pushed a scroll into his arms before he could protest. "Pack first, then get mad at Kakashi."

Naruto deflated, and nodded. Shisui chuckled, and ruffled his hair.

"Hinata, Shino, may I talk to you?" Kakashi asked. "Shisui, deal with the others."

They followed him to the abandoned Uchiha compound, for some privacy.

"I'm going to be clear. We're going to leave Konoha and go back to the Akatsuki, the organization we were with before," Kakashi said bluntly. "You can't stop us, Shisui and I are S-class ninja, but you can either stay, or leave with us, if you so wish. We will leave in three days, decide before then."

Shino didn't react. "I am afraid I will have to decline now. I would rather stay in Konoha."

Kakashi inclined his head. "No problem. I had guessed that would be your answer. If you require more time, Hinata, you do not have to answer now."

Hinata looked quite nervous. "N-no, I-I think I-I w-would qu-quite l-like to g-go."

Kakashi nodded. "Thought that might be your answer as well. Alright. If you change your mind, you know where to find us. I would suggest packing what you want, and coming over in two days time. Inform your father you will stay the night. We'll leave early that morning. After Shisui's done making a distraction."

Shino blinked. "I'm sure I don't want to know what distraction he is planning. I believe I will take a mission soon, if you do not mind."

Kakashi nodded. "Yeah… that might be a good idea. It'll keep you out of suspicion's way."

"Was th-that all?" Hinata asked, pushing her index fingers together.

"Yes."

Hinata nodded, turning and hurrying out. Shino simply shunshined away.

Two days later, Hinata showed up at their door, a small bag slung over her shoulder. "I-I'm ready."

Naruto grinned and invited her inside. "Alright! Cool! We're about done too!"

"But there are people there, Shisui," Sasuke sighed, rubbing his head. "Semi-innocent ones!"

"It's the freaking red light district!" Shisui squawked. "Nobody there is innocent!"

"And the kids there?" Sasuke asked impatiently.

Shisui pouted. "What about just the abandoned bits?"

Hinata blinked. "Wh-why are you a-arguing about the r-red light district?"

"He wants to set it on fire, why else would they be arguing about it?" Gaara said, from his spot lounging on the couch.

Hinata blinked. "Y-you're s-setting Konoha on f-fire?"

"Not all of it!" Shisui protested. "Just a little bit!"

"The Uchiha compound, the red light district, and the Hyuuga compound consist of at least a third of the entire village," Kakashi noted, turning a page in his book.

"P-please get o-off the counter, K-Kakashi-sensei," Hinata said, sighing.

"No thank you," Kakashi replied, turning another page.

"Get off the counter idiot," Sasori snapped, walking in. Hinata jumped and squeaked. "So one is coming with us. Noted." He circled her a few times, then moved away to sit in a chair.

"So!" Naruto asked, grinning. "Are you leaving your headband or slashing it?!"

Hinata blinked. She hadn't thought about it. She couldn't really just be wearing her headband, after all.

"She has a bit of time to decide," Sasuke said. "We aren't even slashing our headbands till we're out of the village."

"Anyone know what mission Shino took anyway?" Shisui wondered.

"H-he's on a tracking mission w-with a few j-jounin. J-just a B-rank, m-mostly for the experience. W-with the jounin, it should be n-no problem at all."

"Oh good!" Shisui chirped. "He'll have no problems then!"

"Probably," Sasori said, ever the pessimist. Or the realist, as he would correct anyone.

"Close enough!" Shisui replied, still grinning.

Sasuke facepalmed. "Shisui, at this rate, you're going to burn down the entire village."

"T-that would be b-bad," Hinata agreed.

"Alright, alright, I'll stop," Shisui groaned. "Fine, we'll get going.

Shisui checked the village once they'd left the city limits. Three separate columns of smoke rose into the air. One from the Uchiha clan compound, one from the Hyuuga clan compound, and the other from the abandoned bits of the redlight district. Had to punish Jiraiya for being such a bad teacher somehow, after all. And punish Hinata's family for being douchebags with sticks up their butts.

He preened slightly when the fires were still raging two hours out, the smoke still clearly visible to someone with the Sharingan.

"Kyu says he approves, lighting those places on fire was a good idea." Naruto said, grinning. "He just woke up now. Kurama caught him up."

"Isn't he supposed t-to be the sensible o-one?" Hinata asked, frowning slightly.

"But the Uchiha clan compound needed to be burned down to make way for new buildings anyway, the Hyuuga were douchebags, no offense to you, Hinata, you're great, and the red light district was clearly more important to my godfather then I was, and getting back at him is totally a job for fire."

Hinata flushed red at being called great, and Shisui patted her head.

"What did Shisui light on fire?" Itachi asked as he materialized next to his cousin in a swirl of crows. Kisame walked out of the bushes to join them.

"The Hyuuga clan compound, the Uchiha clan compound, and a bit of the red light district," Sasuke said, immediately moving to walk between his brother and Kisame.

"Hey guppy," Kisame said, ruffling Sasuke's hair with one very large blue hand.

"KISAME!" Naruto shouted, startling a flock of birds into flight. He latched on in a hug. Kisame ruffled his hair too.

"Hey remora fish," Kisame said, carefully and quickly detaching said teen. "We're walking, quit hugging me."

"Sorry!" Naruto chirped, not sounding very sorry at all.

Kisame rolled his eyes. "Whatever, squirt."

"I'm not a squirt!" Naruto protested loudly.

"A loud one too," Kisame lamented, completely ignoring Naruto's protests.

Hinata giggled softly at their antics. Itachi sighed heavily. Sasori rolled his eyes, and Gaara played deaf.

"You are back," Pain greeted, Karin poking her head out from behind him.

"We are!" Shisui agreed. "And we brought someone with us! Say hello to Pain, Hinata!"

"H-hello," Hinata said, shyly hiding behind Kakashi's leg.

Pain inclined his head. "Hello. We can get you set up in an empty room, if you don't mind following me."

Hinata nodded, and they followed him inside the base. The others all quickly found their previous room, heading into them to get set up.

Pain showed her a room marked two. "The two tails politely declined our offer to join us, so you may have her room. She and the eight tails decided to stay in their home village, as they were accepted there just fine."

Hinata blinked, but nodded. "Th-thank you, for your hospitality."

Pain ruffled her hair. "It is no problem, I assure you."

Hinata smiled up at him. She thought she could like it here.

**(A/N) Alright, so theoretically I could end it there, or I could end it next update, or I could try and drag it out for a few more updates. Whadda say? I'm not in the biggest of writing moods right now, so I may not put up the poll to replace this right away, but I'll alert you in the Lilo and Stitch fic when that goes up, so there's that. Whatever happens, have a good night!**


	28. Chapter 28

**(A/N) Yes, thank you for all of the reviews making your opinions on where this ends clear… (sarcasm) This is the last chapter anyway, just an epilogue style and check in on how they're doin! It's a bit short, but it is an epilogue. **

Hinata squeaked when she looked up and met the amber gaze of a woman looking at her curiously.

"Hello." The woman greeted.

"H-Hi," Hinata said, waving slightly. "I-I'm H-Hinata."

"Konan," she replied, nodding to Hinata. "You came with Naruto?"

Hinata nodded nervously, ducking her head and looking away.

"I applaud you for keeping up with them. Your abilities?"

"Ano, g-gentle fist, h-hiding in the m-mist no jutsu. That's m-mostly it." Hinata frowned. It didn't sound like a lot, not compared to the other's abilities.

"I can show you a few of my paper jutsu, if you are interested," Konan suggested. None of the jinchuuriki had the chakra control for it, and she did need a person to pass her skills on to.

Hinata lit up, then shrunk back. "I-if y-you don't m-mind, I-I'd like t-to."

Konan nodded solemnly. "We can begin once you are finished with your breakfast." She disappeared into the kitchen, and Hinata hurried to eat her food.

* * *

"Gaara," Sasori said calmly. "You are old enough to do it now. If you wish."

Gaara brightened slightly. "We can do it now?"

Sasori nodded. "Yes. I have requested leave, and we can do it now."

Gaara smiled slightly, and that was that.

* * *

"Have you seen Gaara?" Naruto wondered, plopping down next to Shisui.

"Gaara is busy with Sasori and will be back in a few days, Hinata is working with Konan, and unless you want papercuts everywhere, I wouldn't interrupt them," Shisui said, not even bothering to open his eyes. He got more comfortable as Naruto left, letting out a quiet sigh and going back to his nap.

* * *

"You're all shiny!" Fuu declared, poking at Gaara's arm.

"I am," Gaara replied, sounding mildly amused.

"Did you pull a Sasori?" Naruto asked suspiciously.

"What does that mean?" Hinata asked, examining Gaara's arm as well.

"Oh, Sasori's a puppet!" Fuu chirped, knocking on Gaara's arm, it sounded very hollow.

Hinata blinked, and activated her byakugan. "O-oh, you a-are mostly h-hollow," Hinata said, blinking to turn the dojutsu back off again.

"The operative word being mostly," Gaara replied, smirking very slightly.

"I don't wanna know what you put in there," Fuu decided.

"Ditto!" Naruto declared, grabbing Fuu and flouncing off.

"I-I think it's interesting," Hinata offered quietly.

* * *

Hiashi glared down at the ashes that was once his daughter's room. Or more specifically, the note, that was hidden in the ashes.

_Hiashi-sama_

_I apologize for not being able to remain in Konoha, but I do not regret my decision. If you are reading this, I have already left. _

_Please inform Neji and Hanabi that this is not personal, I have had problems with Konoha and the Hyuuga clan for quite a while. _

_Goodbye tou-san, I hope we do not meet in battle. _

Hiashi growled at the Hyuuga that came to investigate the note. He backed off quickly, and Hiashi picked up the note, folding it and setting it in his pocket.

* * *

**(Aaand, the random this is a few years in the future, have fun with it)**

An older Shino waits in a clearing, poking at a few dead bodies. All had assorted water related injuries and paper cuts. Signs of his old friend.

"Shino," Hinata said, smiling as she stepped into the clearing. "Didn't expect to see you here."

"Likewise," Shino said, standing up and looking at his old friend. She had grown, of course, standing confidently with none of her old timidness. An Akatsuki cloak, was, of course, her primary clothing, with lavender being the primary color of the rest of her outfit, including boots and gloves. "Gaara." He looked exactly the same as he did a few years ago, when he left. But Hinata had explained the puppet thing.

"Shino," Gaara greeted, inclining his head.

"Do try and avoid the civilians?" Shino requested.

Hinata smiled. "We w-will do our best." Ah, the stutter. Forever there, a verbal tic she had tried to get rid of for years. With no success unfortunately.

"Everyone else doing well?" Shino asked.

"Yeah, Shisui's convinced he's dying of a c-cold, but that's normal," Hinata said, grinning.

"He's always convinced he's dying of something," Gaara replied dryly.

"Sounds about like Shisui-sensei," Shino replied, inclining his head.

"Of course," Hinata said, giggling. "We should be going. Have a good day Shino!"

Shino nodded to them as they disappeared into the undergrowth.

**(A/N) Cool! So there's a poll up for what replaces this, yes, that is Miraculous Ladybug, no, I'm not kidding, that's an actual story. BYE!**


End file.
